Four teams are headed home, while four more — largely driven by star performances — are moving on in Milan.
The men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Games staged a qualification round on Tuesday that saw Sweden, Czechia, Switzerland and Germany punch tickets to Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
The closest contest of the day — and the one Canadian fans were most interested in — saw Czechia nudge Denmark 3-2 to secure a date with Team Canada.
Neither team could find the range in the opening 20 minutes, but the goals came fast and furious in the second. Colorado Avalanche winger Martin Necas — who’s having a very strong tournament — opened the scoring with this third tally of the Olympics by making a perfect shot on a Czech power play. Teed up by defenceman Filip Hronek, Necas absolutely wired a blast from the face-off dot between the glove and helmet of Danish stopper Frederik Andersen.
The Danes pushed back, though, and drew even after a bad giveaway by Czech defenceman Michal Kempny. Alexander True picked off Kempny’s weak clearing attempt inside the Czech zone, sent a pass down to Joachim Blichfield, and dove the net. When the return feed came, True made no mistake and slammed it by Lukas Dostal.
That strike kicked off a run of three goals in 2:02 around the midway point of the game. David Kampf put Czechia back on top 73 seconds after True’s tally by being strong on his stick and redirecting a puck home right from the blue paint. Then, 40-year-old Czech captain Roman Cervenka showed he’s still got some tread on the tires, bursting into the offensive zone and beating Andersen with another seeing-eye shot that went in the net just under where the crossbar and goalpost merge.
It would have been easy for the Danes to fold the tent at that point, but Nick Olesen — operating on a Danish power play — showed silky hands down low, quickly pulling a puck around the goal line from his backhand to his forehand and roofing it to make it a one-goal game with less than three minutes left in the middle stanza.
Oliver Bjorkstrand had a glorious chance to pull the Danes even late in the third on a clear-cut break, but Dostal got his pad flat on the ice and prevented the Tampa Bay Lightning player from sliding the puck into the net. The Czechs held tight with Andersen on the bench and squeaked out the win.
The good news for Czechia, as it prepares to play Canada for the second time in Italy, is both Necas and Hronek are doing their best to drive the offence. The bad, though, is that Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak still doesn’t quite look like his dangerous self, while Vegas Golden Knights centre Tomas Hertl — despite some decent looks — has yet to register a single point at the Games.
The first two games of the day — which started just after 6 a.m. ET — saw Germany pull away from France for a 5-1 victory, while the Swiss blanked Italy 3-0.
The Germans jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead on the French, with Leon Draisaitl banging home a one-timer on the power play to get the team rolling just 3:40 into the game. Frederik Tiffels and JJ Peterka both got their first goals of the tournament before the first intermission, but much-feted French captain Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — playing what will surely be his final Olympic contest — struck back in the second, bouncing a puck off German defenceman Floran Douay’s leg to get his team on the board.
It wasn’t pretty, but it pulled the French back in the fight.
France, which replaced goalie Julian Junca with Antoine Keller after 20 minutes of play, hung tough thanks in large part to Keller’s strong play. Peterka had a glorious chance to increase the German lead near the end of the second, but Keller denied his one-timer.
The Germans, though, did pull away in the third, with Josh Samanski — who’s played a handful of games with the Edmonton Oilers this season — scoring a power-play goal 7:01 into the final frame. Draisaitl drew an assist on that goal and also picked up a helper on Nico Sturm’s empty-netter that sealed the deal. Draisaitl finished with three points on the day, while Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stutzle continued his strong tournament with a pair of helpers.
Suddenly, Germany is a win over Slovakia away from appearing in the final four of a best-on-best tournament.
The Swiss, meanwhile, clamped down on Italy during a 20-save shutout for Leonardo Genoni. San Jose Sharks winger Philipp Kurashev got Switzerland rolling just 1:19 into the game, before captain Roman Josi made it 2-0 with a blast that caromed off an Italian stick and past goalie Damian Clara.
In all, Switzerland put 51 shots on Clara and the last one to beat him came from the stick of New Jersey Devils pivot Nico Hischier. That goal represented Hischier’s first of the tournament, which surely sent him into the quarterfinals feeling a little better about his game. The Swiss, of course, lost a big offensive weapon in Kevin Fiala when he was injured against Canada, meaning the likes of Hischier — who wound up with three points versus Italy — and Devils teammate Timo Meier (two assists on Tuesday) will have to come up with some big goals the rest of the way, as Switzerland draws Finland in the quarters.
Finally, Sweden ended Latvia’s tournament with a 5-1 victory in the day’s last contest. Lucas Raymond, who was surely looking to redeem himself following a boneheaded penalty that cost Sweden in the preliminary round, came through with a team-high three points, all assists. Raymond, recall, took the totally unnecessary penalty late in Sweden’s final preliminary-round game versus Slovakia that allowed the Slovaks to score a goal that — despite losing to Sweden — put them on top of Group B thanks to goal-differential.
As such, Sweden had to play a qualification-round game rather than receive a bye to the quarters. If there’s a silver lining, perhaps it’s that Sweden had one more contest to build some burgeoning chemistry. They’ve now won two straight games after opening the tourney with an unconvincing win versus Italy and a loss to Finland.
Filip Gustavsson tended goal in each of those first two outings for Sweden, but the club turned to Jacob Markstrom after that, and he’s now won two in a row following the victory over Latvia. Surely it will be Markstrom in the blue paint when Sweden takes on Team USA in a hockey heavyweight battle on Wednesday.
Of course, that matchup also pits Toronto Maple Leaf stars Auston Matthews and William Nylander — who tallied his second of the Olympics versus Latvia — against each other, creating just one of numerous tasty storylines heading into Wednesday’s lineup of quarterfinal fun.
