Sweden defeats Canada in men’s Olympic hockey 2022 to advance to semifinals | Bleacher Report
AP Photo / Matt Slocum
Sweden’s men’s hockey team has advanced to the semifinals at the 2022 Winter Olympics with a 2-0 victory over Canada on Wednesday.
Lucas Wallmark broke the deadlock with a goal without an assist in the middle of the third period. Anton Lander put the icing on the cake with his team-leading third goal in the games with less than two minutes left to play.
There were plenty of question marks about how well this Canada team led into the playoffs of the tournament. All three of their wins came against Germany and China, who together won 1-0-7 in Beijing.
Canada’s only significant test in group play was against Team USA in a match that the Americans won 4-2.
In the playoffs to reach the quarterfinals, Canada looked sloppy against China early on. The latter had two outbursts and a penalty shot in the first period. The Canadians eventually got on the right track to win 7-2.
Lack of consistency has been a crucial feature of Canada. Head coach Claude Julien has tried to find the right answers. Matt Tomkins stopped 77 of 80 shots in three games, including Wednesday, after taking over for Edward Pasquale.
Canada’s powerplay resulted in four goals on eight chances against China in the playoffs.
Sweden was a significant step up in the competition from that game. The European team won two of three matches in Group C, with their lone loss in overtime against an excellent Finnish squad.
The Swedes also had plenty of rest for this match as they secured a farewell to the quarterfinals as the highest ranked second place that came out of the group stage.
Lars Johansson and Sweden’s defense did a fantastic job of limiting Canada’s opportunities. Johansson only needed to stop 22 shots to record his first shutout in the tournament.
Canada had three power-play chances in the match but could not convert on any of them. Julien’s squad only managed four shots in the third period.
The Canadian defense could match Sweden for most of the match. Wallmark finally got Sweden on the board when he forced a turnover and got a shot that was deflected by a Canadian player before he passed Tomkins.
Lander sealed the victory with an empty goal. The victory sends Sweden to its first Olympic semi-final since 2014 when they lost to Canada in the gold medal game.
This is the first time that Canada’s men’s hockey team has not won a medal in the Olympics since 2006.
Sweden will face the Russian Olympic Committee in the second semifinal on Friday at 8:10 ET.