{"id":461954,"date":"2026-02-18T12:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461954\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T12:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T12:19:16","slug":"usa-vs-sweden-olympic-quarterfinal-pits-7-wild-teammates-against-one-another","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/461954\/","title":{"rendered":"USA vs. Sweden Olympic quarterfinal pits 7 Wild teammates against one another"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MILAN \u2013 Defensemen hate playing Joel Eriksson Ek. All Minnesota Wild fans know that.<\/p>\n

So do Quinn Hughes and Brock Faber. The American defensemen both know they won\u2019t have to look hard Wednesday to find where Sweden\u2019s menace of a center will be on the ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight at the net creating havoc,\u201d said Faber, a second-pair defenseman and first-over-the-boards penalty killer for the United States.<\/p>\n

From the moment Olympic rosters were set, the common question inside the Wild dressing room was what would it be like for Hughes, Faber and Matt Boldy to have to go up against Eriksson Ek, Marcus Johansson and potentially Filip Gustavsson or Jesper Wallstedt in the Olympics. Another teammate, Jonas Brodin, had been set to play for Sweden but missed out due to a lower-body injury<\/a> that required surgery.<\/p>\n

Well, how delicious. That meeting comes in the quarterfinals, not semis or gold medal game.<\/p>\n

Standing in the way of the three American players \u2014 plus general manager Bill Guerin, coach John Hynes (one of USA\u2019s assistants) and a number of other Wild staff \u2014 are Eriksson Ek and the talented Swedes, whose road to a medal became more difficult when they gave up a goal in the final minute of their final preliminary game to Slovakia, turning a win into what felt like a loss.<\/p>\n

The two-goal win, rather than the three-goal margin Sweden had, meant Slovakia won their group on goal difference and gave Sweden a quarterfinal date with the U.S. after it smoked Latvia 5-1 in the qualifying round Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a good team,\u201d Faber said of the Swedes. \u201cDidn\u2019t necessarily click for them (in the prelims), but they beat us in the 4 Nations. They\u2019ve got a solid, deep, really, really good hockey team. So we\u2019re gonna need to be our best. And obviously, playing against Ekker will be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

So would playing Gustavsson, who didn\u2019t dress Tuesday against Latvia. Wallstedt backed up Jacob Markstr\u00f6m, so even though coach Sam Hallam wouldn\u2019t tip his hand, one wonders if Gustavsson didn\u2019t dress because he\u2019s starting against the United States and it\u2019s not Markstr\u00f6m playing on back-to-back days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think many times you see goalies who play back-to-back play even better the second night,\u201d Hallam said. \u201cBut let\u2019s see if everybody\u2019s fresh and ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gustavsson is 1-1 in the tournament with a 2.55 goals-against average and .889 save percentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be fun,\u201d Boldy said, smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I get some good looks,\u201d said Faber. \u201cNo, he\u2019s a great goalie when he\u2019s hot. We know him as well as anyone, and when he\u2019s playing well, he\u2019s hard to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eriksson Ek loves his Wild teammates, especially Boldy, his linemate in Minnesota. But this is USA vs. Sweden, so he won\u2019t take it easy if Boldy, Faber or Hughes is standing between him and the crease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they will, either,\u201d said Eriksson Ek, who has a short-handed goal and an assist in four games. \u201cWe\u2019re out there playing for our countries right now. One game and just put everything into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faber is having a strong tournament. The two-time Olympian scored his first career Olympics goal against Germany and has an assist for two points in three games. He\u2019s also part of a 9-for-9 penalty kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super happy for Fabes,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cI know he\u2019s got a bunch of family in the crowd, too. So it\u2019s pretty cool to score here. I felt the same way when I scored, but to see one of your best friends have a goal like that in the Olympics was pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boldy has scored a goal in three games and is coming off an eight-shot performance against Germany. He has impressed the past two games on the United States\u2019 top line with Jake Guentzel and Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to make a difference any way I can,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cI think our line\u2019s playing great. We\u2019re getting a lot of chances. Auston\u2019s been unreal. I think goals are out there, and we\u2019re getting chances to score. Some of them aren\u2019t going in, but some of them are. And I think the way we\u2019re playing the game is pretty honest and the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt Boldy has impressed. Coach Mike Sullivan has called him an \u201cemerging star,\u201d and Vincent Trocheck continues to be blown away by Boldy\u2019s skill level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was eye-opening for me last year at 4 Nations,\u201d Trocheck said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t as familiar with him before that tournament. I think he came into that tournament as one of our best players. We\u2019ve played in the regular season a couple times since then, and you notice him more and more every game. Here, he\u2019s been one of our best players. He just does all the little things so well. Great shot, skates well. He plays well defensively. He\u2019s a 200-foot player. Just a great tournament. There\u2019s a lot to like.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then of course, there\u2019s Hughes, who has four assists in three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a game changer on the blue line,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

Wallstedt hasn\u2019t played in the tournament, while Johansson has no points in two games. As for the rest of the Wild Olympians, Nico Sturm and Germany play Samuel Hlavaj and Slovakia, while David Spacek and the Czech Republic face Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s real now,\u201d Faber said. \u201cJust one and done. These are games you dream of playing, and it\u2019s exciting. We\u2019ve got to be at our best. Anyone can beat anyone here. I thought we played three good games, but those don\u2019t matter anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics.\u00a0 MILAN \u2013 Defensemen hate playing Joel Eriksson Ek.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,54125,161,38,5280,4,2602,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-461954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-olympics","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116091601739501275","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461954","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=461954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}