TURIN, Italy (AP) International hockey's governing board closely monitored Sweden's 3-0 loss to Slovakia in Olympic preliminary play Tuesday after Swedish coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson suggested his team might be better off losing. The loss meant Sweden will play Switzerland instead of Canada or the Czech Republic in Wednesday's men's hockey quarterfinals. Though Switzerland beat both the other teams and finished ahead of Canada and the Czechs in preliminary play, it is considered a much weaker opponent. Kalervo Kummola, chief of the Finnish Hockey Association, was sent by the International Ice Hockey Federation to watch the game. The IIHF routinely designates game supervisors to monitor games, but normally doesn't identify the person it sends. After watching the first period, Kummola said he "didn't see anything special" and was happy Sweden was using its personnel as normal. "It is very important that you play hard because people do not understand if you lose on purpose," Kummola said.
