{"id":462029,"date":"2026-02-18T13:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462029\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:39:53","slug":"jacob-markstrom-starts-for-sweden-vs-latvia-in-qualification-game-at-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/462029\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacob Markstrom starts for Sweden vs. Latvia in qualification game at Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Goaltender Jacob Markstrom will start for Team Sweden against Latvia Tuesday in the men\u2019s Olympic hockey qualification round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sweden head coach Sam Hallam told reporters on Monday he knew who would start in net Tuesday against Latvia, but wasn\u2019t ready to reveal his choice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Both Markstrom and Filip Gustavsson saw action in the preliminary round at the Olympic tournament. Gustavsson\u2019s Wild teammate Jesper Wallstedt is the third goalie on Sweden\u2019s roster and while serve Markstrom\u2019s backup on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Forward Jesper Bratt and defenceman Rasmus Andersson were also scratched in addition to Gustavsson. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Should Sweden win on Tuesday, the team will advance to face the United States in the quarter-finals on Wednesday, leaving Hallam with a decision on whether to use the same goaltender on back-to-back days.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jacob Markstrom was the first off the ice from Sweden\u2019s morning skate. Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt are doing extra work. So looks like it\u2019s Markstrom\u2019s net tonight against Latvia.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drosennhl\/status\/2023723939101376742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gustavsson started the first two games for Sweden but struggled early in each outing, allowing two goals on the first four shots he faced in their tournament-opening win over Italy last Wednesday and letting in two of his first six shots in their 4-1 defeat against Finland on Friday. Gustavsson has allowed five goals on 45 shots combined through two games at Milano Cortina 2026, a save percentage of .888.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sweden turned to Markstrom Saturday against Slovakia, who stopped 29 of 32 shots in a 5-3 victory. Wallstedt served as the backup for the Swedes during their preliminary round finale.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cLet us see,\u201d Hallam said of his goaltending decision after the win over Slovakia. \u201c(Markstrom) showed good presence. I like the way he plays with the puck. He started a couple of breakouts for us. He felt big, felt solid, so he did a good impression on me, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gustavsson has been solid for the Minnesota Wild for far in 2025-26 with a 2.61 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage in 36 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 36-year-old Markstrom has a 3.20 GAA average and a .882 save percentage in 30 games for the New Jersey Devils so far this NHL season.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Goaltender Jacob Markstrom will start for Team Sweden against Latvia Tuesday in the men\u2019s Olympic hockey qualification round.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[4759,5,39092,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-462029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-jacob-markstrom-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8474593","11":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116091921259035048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462029","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=462029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}