What a day of quarterfinal action, as we saw three overtime games as we get set for the medal round.
Slovakia 6, Germany 2
Slovakia put their foot on the gas, and would not pass up the opportunity that a solid round robin performance and favourable draw gave them.
Pavol Regenda opened the scoring with the only goal in the first period, and the Slovaks really turned it on in the second period. Milos Kelemen and Oliver Okuliar scored 33 seconds apart to make it 3-0 followed by a Dalibor Dvorsky goal.
Lukas Reichel made it 4-1 late in the third, but Slovakia would put all momentum to bed when Regenda scored his second of the game just 58 seconds into the third period.
Frederik Tiffels scored a goal for Germany before Tomas Tatar scored an empty netter to seal it.
Samuel Hjavaj made 25 saves for Slovakia. Philipp Grubauer made 29/34 saves.
Canada 4, Czechia 3 [OT]
Nick Suzuki’s goal with 3:27 remaining sent the game to overtime and Mitch Marner scored 82 seconds into the extra frame as Canada survived a scare to defeat the Czechs 4-3.
Suzuki’s goal came at the end of a shift when he decided to stay on the ice rather than dump the puck in and change and kept play alive for a tip-in goal.
“There was a lot of relief [on the tying goal]. I did not love my backcheck on the [Czech’s] third goal, because I think I could have gotten a better stick on the drop pass to break up the play,” Suzuki said. “After that I wanted to step up and do something to help the team. I knew my linemates were changing [before the goal] and I did not want to dump the puck and turn it over, so I tried to chip it to myself, get on the forecheck and create an opportunity. I am just trying to play the right way and do all the little things right like going to the net, and I got rewarded for that tonight.”
Macklin Celebrini and Nathan MacKinnon also scored for Canada.
After Canada had a 1-0 lead, Czechia took leads of 2-1 and 3-2 on goals from Lukas Sedlak, David Pastrnak, and Ondrej Palat. Palat’s goal, it turned out, was scored with too many players on the ice which was undetected by almost everyone in real time until a closer look at the footage emerged post-game. Luckily for all involved, that wasn’t the difference in the game or we would still be talking about it.
Jordan Binnington made 21 saves, including some huge ones late in the third period and in overtime. Lukas Dostal was great for Czechia, making 37 saves.
Sidney Crosby left the game in the second period with a leg injury and did not return, an injury eerily similar to the one suffered by Marie-Philip Poulin.
Finland 3, Switzerland 2 [OT]
After trailing for 2-0 for most of the game after first period goals from Damien Riat and Nino Niederreiter, Finland scored twice in the final 6:06 to force overtime before Artturi Lehkonen’s overtime winner.
Sebastian Aho and Miro Heiskanen scored the Finnish goals, with Heiskanen’s tying goal coming with 1:12 left in regulation.
Lehkonen’s goal came on a breakaway 3:23 into the extra period.
Juuse Saros made 20 saves for Finland. Leonardo Genoni made 29 saves for Switzerland, but the Swiss could not hold on for the upset.
United States 2, Sweden 1 [OT]
It was a game where the team that lost would be bitterly disappointed to not play for the medals, and it was the United States who ended up taking the game in overtime after blowing a late third-period lead.
Quinn Hughes scored the overtime winner 3:27 into the extra frame.
After a scoreless first period, Dylan Larkin opened the scoring on a tip in front. Then with 1:31 remaining, Mika Zibanejad tied the game for Sweden, firing a one-timer from the left circle.
Sweden had their opportunities before that, including several shots from Lucas Raymond and a third period power play, but were unable to breakthrough for a tying goal earlier. Adrian Kempe hit the post with under three minutes left.
Jacob Markstrom made 38 saves in the loss, and kept the game close for the Swedes. Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves in the win.
Victor Hedman hurt himself in warm up and was not available for Sweden, but was dressed and spent the entire game on the bench.
Up Next
Thursday will see the final day of women’s hockey at the Olympics. Switzerland and Sweden face off for bronze, while Canada and the United States play for gold.
