Sweden men’s hockey facing tough Olympic challenges after three consecutive victories

Milan — Team Sweden’s Olympic Journey So Far

Sweden has managed to win two out of three qualifying matches, but, oddly, there hasn’t been much to celebrate after each game.

Take the game against Italy, for example. Despite their star-studded lineup, Sweden was held to a 2-2 tie after two periods against an Italian team lacking NHL players. It was… unexpected.

Then on Saturday, Slovakia clinched the top spot in Group B with an impressive 11-0 victory over Italy. Interestingly, Sweden won their game against Slovakia 5-3, thanks to Dalibor Dvorski’s power-play goal just 39 seconds before the final buzzer.

“We managed to put together five goals, and that’s how you typically win in hockey,” said Jacob Markstrom, our goalie, who started in the Olympic opener and made 29 saves. Still, there’s a sense of missing out.

It’s worth noting that Sweden didn’t even snag second place in their group, a spot that went to Finland. They had a solid comeback after initially losing to Slovakia in their first match.

Coach Sam Hallam reminded everyone that during the 2010 Olympics, Canada, who went on to win gold, had to scramble through overtime after losing to the U.S. in qualifying.

Looking back, Saturday’s performance was arguably the best of the three games played so far.

Hallam switched things up significantly. He moved Gabriel Landeskog to the second line with Lucas Raymond and Mika Zibanejad, brought in Marcus Johansson for his first game, and shuffled Filip Forsberg and Elias Pettersson onto the third line.

Importantly, Sweden’s key players showed up. Raymond scored a stunning solo goal, while Pettersson, who had been struggling for goals in both this Olympics and last year’s 4 Nations tournament, found the net twice. Slovakia, though initially a surprise, pushed Sweden hard but never took the lead.

Reflecting on the day, Landeskog mentioned, “We saw a lot of improvement today. In areas we wanted to enhance, we were there. Defensively, we kept it tight, and offensively, we were quick to seize the puck.”

That said, Sweden still feels a bit behind the likes of the U.S. and Canada. There’s an ongoing goaltending issue as well. Hallam didn’t commit to starting Markstrom, while Filip Gustafsson has been inconsistent in both of his starts.

And despite facing their arch-rivals from Finland, they haven’t secured a convincing win during the group stages, which was a bit of a letdown, considering the expectations.