Olympic Hockey: Auston Matthews, USA advance to semi-finals with win over William Nylander, Sweden
While it didn’t quite feature the dramatics of Canada’s 4-3 overtime win against Czechia or Finland’s comeback win over Switzerland, Wednesday afternoon’s final quarter final tilt between Team USA and Team Sweden was the third of the day to go to overtime, and the States prevailed. As a result, Auston Matthews remains the last Leaf still in the tournament, as William Nylander and Oliver Ekman-Larsson will head home following the overtime loss.
Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin opened the scoring midway into the second period after redirecting a point shot from Jack Hughes, and the score stayed at 1-0 for the majority of the game until some last-minute theatrics. With the net empty and a little under two minutes left in the game, Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond found New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad for a cross-ice one-timer that made its way past Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to even the game at 1 and send the game to overtime.
In overtime, the two teams traded chances, without many of them materializing into anything high-danger. That is, until Minnesota Wild defenceman Quinn Hughes took advantage of some space on the ice and wired home the overtime winner at 3-on-3. Matthews picked up an assist on the play, bringing him to six points in four games to lead the United States in scoring at the tournament thus far.
With the way the rest of the quarter final games shook out, the United States will now face Slovakia in the semi-finals on Friday, with Team Canada set to take on Finland. The losers of said games will face off for the bronze medal on Saturday afternoon, while the winners of them will duke it out for the gold medal at 8 am eastern time on Sunday morning.
Nylander finished the tournament with four points in five games for Sweden, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson finished with 0 in five games.