Tonight's IIHF World Championship final could be historic for the Swedish captain.

by Luke Fisher & Lukáš Kratochvíl

COLOGNE – While much of the attention in Cologne has been on Joel and Henrik Lundqvist trying to win a gold medal playing on the same team, the Frolunda forward is also going for another unique honour in today's World Championship final. Having already captained Frolunda Gothenburg to the CHL title this season, Joel is now attempting to captain Team Sweden to the World gold in the same season.

"It's even bigger to be here to be honest, and I'm so proud to be a part of this Swedish national team," said the two-time CHL winner. "It's been the plan all along to try and go all the way and it's a big game tomorrow. We need to play our best game of the tournament tomorrow, but also focus on our own game and not think too much about them." 

He added, "Of course to have my brother on the same team is special, but a win is a win. We'll need him for sure as we do every guy on the team to play even better than tonight."

Also on Team Sweden is Vaxjo Lakers' forward Dennis Everberg. The Lakers suffered CHL heartbreak in the Semi-Finals as they lost to Sparta Prague, and then saw their SHL post-season end in the quarter-finals to the Malmo Redhawks.

"We had the Champions Hockey league and the SHL and one of my goals was to play here for the national team," explained the 26-year-old, who will play in the KHL next season for Avangard Omsk. "It's bad we didn't go further in those club competitions, but we can still finish the season with a win here. Now it comes down to one game and it's against Canada, it will be a lot of fun."