TORONTO _ Coming into the World Cup of Hockey, two teams seemed out of place in an international tournament: Team North America and Team Europe.
North America, with its roster of 23-and-younger players from the U.S. and Canada, quickly garnered admiration of its fast-paced, flashy play that knocked off Finland and Sweden.
Nobody knew what to make of Team Europe, which featured players _ including Blackhawks winger Marian Hossa of Slovakia _ from eight countries excluding Finland, Russia, Sweden and the Czech Republic. It seemed thrown together just to have an eighth team in the tournament.
And after North America thrashed Europe in two exhibition games before the World Cup, most dismissed Europe's chances of making an impact.
But Team Europe has become the surprise of the hockey world after knocking off Sweden to earn a date with favored Canada in the best-of-three finals.
"Not many of us get to the finals in these international tournaments," Hossa said. "It's something new for a lot of people in our dressing room, and we're going to enjoy it and try to make the best of it."
One of the best things this World Cup has done is give players from other European countries a chance to play for an international title. In the Olympics, players from countries such as Denmark, Switzerland and France are just happy to be there.
"I'm so pleased that these peripheral countries in the world of hockey have had an opportunity to compete with the best in the world for the first time," Europe coach Ralph Krueger said. "That's not possible when these players show up alone at tournaments. They're forever fighting relegation in world tournaments. They're forever fighting just to get to (the) Olympic Games _ forget about competing for anything at them."
The patchwork team came together quickly over the last few weeks, and it will be no more after the World Cup. But Europe is trying to make a permanent memory out of a temporary team.
According to Hossa, the exhibition embarrassments showed what Europe had to do if it did not want to crash out of the tournament early. An opening victory over the U.S. provided the team with a needed confidence boost that it could be a viable threat.
"It was good we played against those young kids," Hossa said. "They showed we had to play at a different level and a different speed. ... After that point we started understanding the system and what the coach wanted from us, and we played way better defensively."
With winning came popularity. Hossa said people in Slovakia were hesitant to embrace Team Europe at first because the country did not have its own team in the tournament, but now the interest has grown.
"Lots of people are disappointed, but also lots of people are looking forward to seeing the best players play," Hossa said. "It got more interesting as we have gone further. People are becoming more a fan of the Europeans and they have started watching a little bit more closely."
Krueger said he has heard encouraging words from countries that are not even represented on Team Europe, such as Hungary.
"We're representing all of those underdog little guys," Krueger said. "It's making this very special."
It could become even more so with a victory over Canada, which dominated Europe 4-1 in pool play.
"That's a different animal we're going to face," Hossa said. "Everybody has to dig deep to be successful against this team."
