TURIN, Italy — Henrik Lundqvist goes against Jaromir Jagr daily in practice with the New York Rangers. The rookie goalie knows all of Jagr's signature moves, his tendencies, how his slap shot carries off his stick and what he does on breakaways.

So Sweden's goaltender should have a big advantage when he goes against hockey's most gifted scorer in the Olympic men's semifinals Friday, right?

Jagr, attempting to lead the world champion Czechs to their second gold medal in the last three Olympics, laughed when it was suggested Lundqvist might know what he will and won't do.

"Hey, I don't know where I am going to shoot," Jagr said Thursday. "How is he going to know?"

The notion that familiarity doesn't guarantee success could apply to both semifinal games in what has become an all-European medal round.

Because Finland, Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic send dozens of players to the NHL and meet regularly in world championships, their players know each other well. The Swedes' roster is loaded with Detroit Red Wings players, while the Czechs have plenty of Rangers.

But in an already unpredictable tournament — which has included Latvia tying the U.S., Switzerland beating Canada and the Czechs nearly losing to Italy — does familiarity really help?

"Right now, it's a lottery," Czech defenseman Marek Malik said. "You have the four best teams."

The lottery ticket being held by Sweden coach Bengt-Ake Gustafsson pits his team against the Czechs, an opponent he said he preferred to duck earlier this week. The coach drew scrutiny for his squad when he said they might be wise to lose to Slovakia to avoid facing the Czechs in the quarterfinals.

The Swedes got their desired quarterfinal pairing with Switzerland, winning 6-2. Now comes the matchup Gustafsson didn't want and — along with it — questions of whether he sent the wrong message to his players by talking openly about avoiding the Czechs.

Sweden star Peter Forsberg said it isn't even an issue.

"We don't have any control over it this time," he said, smiling, of the semifinal matchup. "It doesn't matter."

What does matter most this late in a tournament is goaltending, and that's why Czech coach Alois Hadamczik has a tough choice to make.

Does he stay with Czech league goalie Milan Hnilicka, who was excellent in a 3-1 quarterfinal win over Slovakia? Or does he go back to Tomas Vokoun, who took over when starter Dominik Hasek was injured in the Czechs' first game but has not played especially well?

Hadamczik wasn't saying Thursday, perhaps preferring to make the Swedes guess.

Sweden will be without injured defenseman Mattias Ohlund (ribs), who will be replaced by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Niklas Kronwall.

The Russia-Finland game matches the two hottest teams in the tournament; Finland has won all six games in Turin, beating the U.S. 4-3 in the quarterfinals. Russia has won its last five, eliminating 2002 gold medalist Canada in a 2-0 decision Wednesday.

Finland is getting strong play in net from the Flyers' Antero Niittymaki, who was projected as the team's No. 3 goalie before Miikka Kiprusoff and Kari Lehtonen pulled out with injuries. The only goalie who has been better statistically than Niittymaki (1.25 goals against average) is Russia's Evgeni Nabokov, whose 0.50 goals against average is easily the lowest in the tournament.

The Finns are smaller and faster than the Canadians, and have two of the top three goal scorers so far in Teemu Selanne (6 goals) and Olli Jokinen (5). That could give them a more favorable matchup against Russia's fast-skating forwards than Canada had with its larger but less mobile lineup.

While Selanne is scoring plenty of goals, he will leave Turin without three teeth he lost in the U.S. game.

"That's not bad. You can always get new teeth," he said.

Another advantage for Finland: Russia will be without 19-year-old forward Evgeni Malkin, who was ejected late in the Canada game for kicking at Vincent Lecavalier and must sit out Friday. Malkin, who played in the world junior championships only a month ago, has two goals and four assists and has created numerous scoring opportunities with his size and speed.

Even without Malkin for one game, Jagr thinks Russia is the best team remaining because of its abundance of skilled scorers.

"Russia has got to be the team to beat, in my opinion," Jagr said. "When they are playing together as a team, they are tough to beat."