{"id":455591,"date":"2026-02-12T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455591\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:46:14","slug":"rangers-mika-zibanejad-scores-adds-assist-in-swedens-olympic-nail-biter-over-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/455591\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers\u2019 Mika Zibanejad scores, adds assist in Sweden\u2019s Olympic nail-biter over Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics \u2013 Ice Hockey \u2013 Men\u2019s Preliminary Round \u2013 Group B \u2013 Sweden vs Italy \u2013 Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena, Milan, Italy \u2013 February 11, 2026. Mika Zibanejad of Sweden celebrates scoring their fourth goal as Italy players look on IMAGN IMAGES via REUTERS\/Geoff Burke<\/p>\n

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New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist in his native Sweden\u2019s 5-2 win over Italy on Wednesday in the first day of the men\u2019s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n

Zibanejad assisted on Gabriel Landeskog\u2019s goal at 9:06 of the first period to tie the game at one, as he found Sweden\u2019s captain with a cross-seam pass late in a first-period power play.<\/p>\n

With Sweden leading by a goal late in the third period, Zibanejad gave them a much-needed insurance marker, floating a long wrist shot past Italian goaltender Davide Fadani, who was screened by Elias Pettersson. Zibanejad\u2019s goal came seconds after he passed up a point-blank one-timer on an open net, opting instead to try and pass to his linemate, Rickard Rakell.<\/p>\n

Sweden\u2019s opening win was a much closer game than they would\u2019ve liked it to be. They entered Wednesday\u2019s game as the heavy favorite, but surrendered the opening goal as goaltender Filip Gustavsson coughed up a big rebound on an Italy clear, then dropped his stick, allowing Italy\u2019s Luca Frigo to capitalize just 4:14 in.<\/p>\n

Though Gustavsson earned comparisons to Tommy Salo\u2019s goaltending gaffe at the 2002 games, and allowed two goals on the first four shots he faced, he settled in and made 20 saves for his first Olympic<\/a> win.<\/p>\n

Sweden registered 60 shots on goal \u2014 the most by a team in the Winter Olympics to feature NHL players \u2014 but was shut down by Italy\u2019s starting goaltender Damien Clara. Clara exited the game in the third period with an injury.<\/p>\n

With the win, Sweden is tied with Slovakia \u2014 who upset Finland 4-1 earlier on Wednesday \u2014 for the Group B lead in the tournament. Sweden will face Finland, who are tied with Italy for last in the group, in their next game on Friday. Puck drop is at 6:10 a.m. ET.<\/p>\n

For more on Mika Zibanejad, the Rangers, and the Olympics, visit AMNY.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics \u2013 Ice Hockey \u2013 Men\u2019s Preliminary Round \u2013 Group B \u2013 Sweden vs Italy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,160,3328,35,5190,5193,4,2602,36,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-455591","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mika-zibanejad","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-rangers","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkrangers","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-olympics","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116057970859654184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}