Checking back in on Olympic hockey, where the U.S. women are in the midst of an epic run that can only be described as dominant. Through the entire Olympics, teams have collectively scored just one goal against the Americans. That’s right. One goal. That includes America’s closest rival on the ice, Canada. America beat Canada 5-0 in the round robin play, a game Canada certainly remembers and will be using as fuel on Thursday.
And that’s important to remember because the score from that game means nothing. This game starts with a clean slate. The winner takes home the gold. The loser goes home with silver. The U.S.-Canada matchup is the same matchup that’s occurred in almost every Olympics since the women’s tournament started in 1998 (in 2006, Sweden upset the U.S. in the semifinals and America end up winning a bronze medal).
The U.S. women got here by defeating Sweden in the semifinals via another shutout. Goaltender Aerin Frankel stopped 21 shots and the U.S. won 5-0 with goals from five different players.
The Canadian women, led by captain Marie-Philip Poulin, beat Switzerland in a 2-1 semifinal match. Poulin wasn’t on the ice when the Canadians lost in round robin play to the U.S. and she could be a difference maker in the gold medal match.
The gold medal match is Thursday, Feb 19 at 10:10 a.m. PT/1:10 p.m. ET. It will air on NBC, USA and Peacock.
Canada’s men’s team dominant after pool play
To the men’s game, where pool play is now done and the tournament has now entered the elimination games. Canada topped all other teams by way of win record (3-0-0) and goal differential (17).
The Canadian team rolled four lines against Czechia, Switzerland and France and didn’t seem to have a problem with any of them. Perhaps the best news for Sharks fans is that young Macklin Celebrini is fitting right in with the best that Canada has to offer and putting the world on notice that there’s reason for all the hype. Through three games, the 19-year-old has 6 points (4 G, 2 A) and is tied with Sidney Crosby and behind just Connor McDavid, 9 points, in team scoring.
Canada is set to play Czechia at 7:40 a.m. PT on Wednesday. Czechia had to win its way into this matchup and beat Denmark today by the score of 3-2.
Team Czechia includes NHL players like Tomáš Hertl, Radko Gudas, David Pastrňák and Martin Nečas along with Lukáš Dostál in the net, but it’s certainly not a team completely made up of NHLers the way Team Canada is.
This is a rematch of a game from round robin play when Canada beat Czechia 5-0.
USA men’s team draws a difficult matchup with Sweden
For Team USA, coming in second out of round robin play has left the men with a very difficult matchup in the quarterfinal round. America’s men will have to play Sweden, one of the only other teams in this tournament that’s made up entirely of NHL players. The Swedes do not lack star power, there’s Gabriel Landeskog, Elias Pettersson and Filip Forsberg on the front end and on the back end, Rasmus Dahlin, Victor Hedman and Erik Karlsson.
Sweden beat Latvia 5-1 to advance to the quarterfinal round. We expect to see goaltender Jacob Markstrom in the net for Sweden against the Americans, though Markstrom has shared the duties with Filip Gustavsson this tournament. Young Jesper Wallstadt is the third goaltender for the Swedes. For Sharks fans, remember that Sweden has Alex Wennberg, so if America loses, there’s a bit of a silver lining there.
The last time these two teams met was in the Four Nations last year, when Sweden won 2-1, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Sweden could pull off an upset.
As for the Americans, the team’s strength has to be in the net, where Connor Hellebuyck is one of the best, if not the best, in the tournament. According to The Athletic, American Head Coach Mike Sullivan will start a top line of Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk while Auston Matthews will center Jake Guentzel and Matt Boldy and Dylan Larkin will center Clayton Klery and Tage Thompson.
America and Sweden play at 12:10 p.m. PT/3:10 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
Kurashev, Regenda also advance to the quarterfinals
And in case you were worried about the Sharks’ two other Olympians, don’t be; they’ve moved on as well. Philipp Kurashev and Switzerland have advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating the host nation, Italy 3-0 today. Kurashev scored the first goal of the game for Switzerland and it held up as the game winner. It was his second point of the games and his first goal.
Switzerland now draws Finland in the quarterfinals. The Finns are captained by former Shark Mikael Granlund and have a number of NHLers of their own.
That game starts at 9:10 a.m. PT/12:10 p.m. ET.
And before all of those games start, Pavol Regenda and Team Slovakia jump on the ice against Germany. Regenda and the rest of Team Slovakia have surprised a lot of people at these Olympics. Slovakia beat Finland and Italy in the group, and though it lost to Sweden, it won the group because it had the best goal differential.
As for Germany, it beat France 5-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Germany and Slovakia play at 3:10 a.m. PT/6:10 a.m. ET.
