MILAN \u2014 This was hardly the first time these players had victory so rudely and suddenly snatched out of their grasp, so close to the finish line only to blow a tire and skid off into a ditch.<\/p>\n
It happens all the time in hockey. Six-on-five goals are deflating, sure, but this is nothing new. Wins become ties, then the game starts anew with the drop of the puck in overtime. That ability to bounce back is hard-wired into a professional athlete\u2019s brain, entwined in their DNA. Short memories. Sharp focus. Move on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you dwell on it, it\u2019s not going to be good,\u201d Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve played in the NHL a long time now, and everyone knows you have to focus on the next shift. If you start dwelling on the past, the past can mess with your game, mess with your confidence. It\u2019s just, move on, keep chugging along.\u201d<\/p>\n
But this isn\u2019t some mid-February NHL game, a regular-season affair where two standings points just became one.<\/p>\n
This is the Olympic Games. The quarterfinals. Do or die. After 12 agonizing years away, the United States was 91 seconds away from playing for an Olympic medal. Then, in a flash of Mika Zibanejad\u2019s stick, they weren\u2019t. They were tied. They had lost momentum. To Sweden, no less, one of the three hockey superpowers.<\/p>\n
How do you mentally reset after that?<\/p>\n
Well, you just do. And then you throw Quinn Hughes over the boards and let him do his thing.<\/p>\n
Hughes\u2019 overtime goal turned Zibanejad\u2019s dramatic equalizer into a mere footnote and gave the Americans an unbearably tense 2-1 victory in the Olympic quarterfinals. The United States moves on to face upstart Slovakia, the ninth-ranked team in the world with just seven NHL players, only one of them who could be classified as anything close to a star \u2014 Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd. It\u2019ll be no cakewalk, not with the joy, confidence and structure the Slovaks have been playing with in this tournament. But Team USA is now a heavy favorite to advance to the gold-medal game, where either Finland or arch-rival Canada will be waiting.<\/p>\n
One step closer to the matchup so many have been wanting to see since last year\u2019s stirring 4 Nations Face-Off, which Canada won in overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just pumped we get to keep this going,\u201d said Devils forward Jack Hughes, Quinn\u2019s younger brother. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to end it in the quarters. That\u2019s a great team over there, and I don\u2019t think anyone saw us playing them in the quarters at the start of the tournament. Whoever it was, a great team was going to be eliminated tonight, and we wanted to keep this thing going. It\u2019s the best hockey, the Olympics. It\u2019s fun to keep it rolling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fun now. Harrowing for a while there.<\/p>\n
In a fierce and physical tight-checking game, the U.S. led 1-0 on Dylan Larkin\u2019s goal midway through the second period. The Americans were smothering the Swedes, with only Lucas Raymond able to break through for a few high-quality scoring chances, and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck up to the challenge each time. The Americans clogged lanes, harassed puck-carriers, and broke up pass after pass with quick sticks. For 58 minutes and 29 seconds, the tenacious Swedes kept hacking their way through the jungle, only to be smacked back by a stray twig each time.<\/p>\n
They stayed patient. They played their game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is, if you become impatient, then they\u2019re going to make sure that you pay for it,\u201d Zibanejad said. \u201cWe had to keep playing, keep playing, keep putting pucks behind them, keep working them and eventually get our chances. And we did. It wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, with Jacob Markstr\u00f6m on the bench for an extra attacker, Sweden finally broke through. And even then, just barely. Zibanejad\u2019s sharp-angle one-timer off a Raymond feed trickled through Hellebuyck and into the net. The ever-so-quiet Zibanejad looked to the heavens, pumped his fists and unleashed a primal scream, exulting to the rafters.<\/p>\n
And after making it through that final minute and a half, the Americans regrouped. They\u2019re hockey players. It\u2019s just what they do.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to pick yourself back up,\u201d Quinn Hughes said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guys that have won Cups and gone deep in the playoffs, superstars in the league. So I feel like it\u2019s a resilient group (with) a lot of experience. You just pick yourself back up, get ready to go. I felt like we had an attack mindset in overtime.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bench wasn\u2019t terribly animated between the end of regulation and the start of overtime. Frustration? Sure. Panic? Never. Business as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was stuff said on the bench, but it\u2019s not like we (were histrionic),\u201d Matthew Tkachuk said. \u201cFor a lot of guys on the team, we\u2019re pretty even-keeled. A lot of guys that have played in big games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few bigger than this one. Even when you\u2019ve won the last two Stanley Cup championships, as Tkachuk\u2019s Florida Panthers have. The Olympics are a different beast.<\/p>\n
But so is Quinn Hughes. And a little more than three minutes into overtime, Hughes took a pass from his Minnesota Wild teammate Matt Boldy, wheeled around along the blue line, went right up the gut and unleashed a wicked shot right through Swedish captain Gabriel Landeskog and right past Markstr\u00f6m, who had done so much to keep his team in the game.<\/p>\n
Hughes, because of injury, wasn\u2019t on the 4 Nations team that narrowly lost to Canada. But he\u2019s on this one. And even on this stage, perhaps especially on this stage, it\u2019s a little easier to withstand the stomach-punch of a last-minute equalizer when he\u2019s on the bench \u2014 someone who can snatch victory right back.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s the kind of player who can be the difference between winning and losing, between believing and doubting, between a second-place finish last year, and a gold medal this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just was, right?\u201d Slavin said. \u201cWe definitely missed him last year at 4 Nations. He\u2019s here, he\u2019s doing his thing, and it definitely makes our team better. It\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larkin scores first Olympic goal<\/p>\n
Larkin is four goals from a fifth straight 30-goal season for the Detroit Red Wings team he captains. Yet he had gone without a goal in the first three games of the tournament and didn\u2019t have a lot of chances after being one of the United States\u2019 best players at the 4 Nations.<\/p>\n
Wednesday, his line was by far the Americans\u2019 best line, with Tage Thompson getting an abundance of chances and Larkin finally snapping a 0-0 second-period tie with a nifty redirection of Jack Hughes\u2019 one-timer from the point after Larkin, the best faceoff man in the tournament, won the draw.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always shows up in big moments,\u201d Brady Tkachuk said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the type of player that he is and it\u2019s so fun to be on the same team, he\u2019s such a great player. He just stepped up. He\u2019s always the X-factor. He\u2019s playing PK, he\u2019s a great five-on-five player, and he scored a big goal for us. He\u2019s just a fantastic player.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a cool moment for Larkin and the Hughes brothers, all Michigan residents who teamed up on the scoring battery. The Hugheses, Larkin, Zach Werenski, Hellebuyck, Jake Sanderson and Kyle Connor are part of a star-studded summer group that skates almost daily in Plymouth in a session run by Jim Hughes, dad of the Hughes brothers.<\/p>\n