U.S. head coach Mike Sullivan told the men’s hockey team prior to the quarterfinal matchup with Sweden to consider it a “Game 7.”<\/p>\n
However, the showdown ended up being even better than playoff hockey, as the American squad outlasted Sweden 2-1 in an overtime thriller.<\/p>\n
An exciting day of hockey all around, Wednesday marked the first time in Olympic quarterfinal-round history that three men’s hockey games were decided in overtime.<\/p>\n
MATCH RESULTS<\/a><\/p>\n The first period for the U.S. and Sweden was a tight one. After 20 minutes, they were tied in just about every category with ten shots apiece.<\/p>\n Team USA finally got an edge 11 minutes into the second when Dylan Larkin got on the board <\/a>to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead. Larkin’s goal proved to be the only one of regulation for the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cScoring first and I thought we had the edge in shots and wearing them down,” Larkin said after the game. “But they pushed in the third [period] and got one late, but I felt we deserved to win and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n It looked as if the United States would hold on to cruise happily into the final four of the men’s Olympic hockey tournament, but Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad had other plans. He scored with just over a minute and a half to go in the third period to send the game to overtime, tied up 1-1.<\/p>\n “That is as nervous as I have ever been in a hockey game,” Larkin said. The way 3-on-3 goes [in overtime], it is about being opportunistic. Someone could fall, the puck could bounce, anything can happen, especially with the ice out there.”<\/p>\n