Olympics 2022 How to watch quarterfinals 2: Canada vs. Sweden
Top-seeded Canada will face eight-seeded Sweden in this quarter-final match in Beijing. For Canada, they will have their sights set on a return to the gold medal game after a perfect start to the tournament. For Sweden, they will try to get the most out of their return to the top eight.
How to look
Friday, February 11, 8:10 AM ET
Summary of preliminary round
Canada (1st Group A, 4-0-0-0, 33 GF, 5 GA)
Canada tore through the round robin, scored double-digit goals against Switzerland and Finland to start the tournament and beat Team USA in the final match to finish at the top of Group A.
Sweden (3rd in group B, 2-0-0-2, 7 GF, 8 GA)
It came to the bottom for the Swedes, but they beat Denmark in their last match in the preliminary round to advance to the quarterfinals. Their wins came against the Danes and Team China, while they lost their matches against the Czech Republic and Japan.
Keys to the game
Canada
For Canadians, scoring early (and often) in Beijing has become a theme. If they can keep it in the quarterfinals, they will kill all the early momentum for the Swedes and control the game from the beginning.
They also get excellent play from their top two lines. Sarah Nurse moved up to the top line instead of against the ROC after Clark was pulled as a precaution due to an incomplete test; she stayed there for the US game. The line-up of nurses, Brianne Jenner and Marie-Philip Poulin, have scored five goals in Canada’s last two matches.
Finally, Canada will want to make a consistent effort in all three periods after a slow first period against Team USA to finish the preliminary round.
Sweden
Sweden did not score more than two goals against a goalkeeper in any of their preliminary round matches, and they will face the most powerful offensive in the entire tournament. They need to find ways to create more dangerous opportunities for themselves and convert when they do.
In addition to that, goalkeeping work will obviously be very important, and there will also be close defense. Sweden will need to do what they can to keep Canada’s players out of the middle of the ice, and from keeping the ball possession for too long. Sweden currently leads the tournament with a 100% perfect penalty kill, even if they go up against the best powerplay (Canada has 46.15% success right now).
Key player
Canada: Brianne Jenner
When he entered this tournament, Jenner had only scored one goal in the Olympics. She has now scored five goals in Beijing. She is consistently one of Canada’s biggest threats when she’s on the ice and she has quickly become a prominent producer for this team.
Sweden: Emma Söderberg
Söderberg has played all four matches for Sweden and noted a save percentage of .951 and 1.77 goals against the average. But she will probably see a much higher volume of shots from Team Canada than in any other match she has played so far, so she must be at her game to give Sweden a chance to win.