Sweden used a four-goal outburst in the second period to trounce the Czech Republic 7-3 at the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament on Saturday and advance to the gold medal game.

Seven different Swedes scored in a balanced attack that put the team back in the Olympic final for the first time since they won gold in Lillehammer in 1994.

The win also goes a long way to erasing the disappointment of their quarter-final exit in Salt Lake City four years ago when goalie Tommy Salo misplayed a long shot against Belarus to knock them out of the tournament.

Sweden will play the winner of the second semi-final between Russia and Finland later on Saturday.

"Today we played our best game so far, and if we can play like this, we'll have a good chance on Sunday," said Swedish captain Mats Sundin.

Before the game Swedish players talked about the importance of getting a quick start. They did just that scoring 34 seconds into the game on a pretty three-way passing play between Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg and Frederik Modin.

Modin's slapshot, the first shot of the game, beat a screened Milan Hnilicka between the legs.

"That was a dream start," said Modin.

The Czechs got that one back with a bit of luck when Filip Kuba's low wrist shot hit the post, bounced off the back of Swedish goalie Henrik Lundqvist's leg and trickled over the goal line at 3:11.

Both goalies looked shaky in the high pressure single knockout semi-final.

Per Johan Axelsson restored Sweden's advantage when he tipped Niklas Lidstrom's long slapshot into the net at 13:37.

But the floodgates opened in the second period as Henrik Sedin, Christian Backman and Jorgen Jonsson all scored in the first eight minutes to put the game out of reach and chase goalie Milan Hnilicka from the net.

"We didn't give Milan much help. It doesn't matter who is in net, if you don't help them, especially against a team like Sweden, you are not going to win," said Czech defenseman Tomas Kaberle.

The change to goalie Tomas Vokoun appeared to wake the Czechs up, at least for a few minutes.

Ales Hemsky and Vaclav Prospal notched goals midway through the period to give the Czechs a glimmer of hope until Daniel Alfredsson's fifth of the tournament made it 6-3.

Tomas Holmstrom added a final goal in the third period.

"We've got one more to go. This team is playing well together, we really believe we can win gold," said defenseman Niklas Lidstrom.