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The 2-0 win by the Swedes eliminates the Czech Republic, the No. 3 seed after the four-game preliminary round. Elsa / Getty Images
MILAN — Sweden pulled off a stunning upset over the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, on Friday in the Olympic women’s hockey tournament quarterfinals.
The 2-0 win by the Swedes eliminates the Czechia, the No. 3 seed after the four-game preliminary round. The Czech team came into the 2026 Olympics as bronze medal favorites, with eight players from the Professional Women’s Hockey League, including No. 1 pick — and leading goal scorer — Kristýna Kaltounková.
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But Swedish netminder Ebba Svensson Träff proved difficult to beat, making 29 saves on 29 shots for her second shutout of the tournament. Svensson Träff had never played in a major international tournament for Sweden before the Milan Cortina Olympics, but with such strong play in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League — she ranks third in the league with a .933 save percentage — the 21-year-old nabbed the starting role from Emma Söderberg.
“She’s amazing,” said forward Sara Hjalmarsson, who is tied for the all-time Swedish record in scoring at the Olympics with 19 career points. “She saves us time and time again out there. … It’s huge to have her back there.”
Forward Hanna Olsson scored the opening goal on the power play 4:47 minutes into the second period, which ended up being the game winner. Nineteen-year-old Hilda Svensson scored on the empty net to seal the deal.
“I’m so happy,” Svensson said after the game. “I couldn’t even think about it when the game ended, I was like, did this just happen?”
Though it’s a massive upset on paper — Sweden entered the quarterfinal as the top-ranked team from Group B and sixth tournament-wide — it shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Sweden has a highly skilled roster with exciting young players, including five graduates from the 2023 under-18 team that upset Team USA in the semifinals at the U18 Women’s World Championship.
Only the Americans (20) scored more goals than Sweden (18) in the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament. NCAA stars Thea Johansson (University of Minnesota-Duluth) and Svensson (Ohio State) paced the offense alongside Olsson, Friday’s quarterfinals hero.
The upset punctuates a long-awaited turnaround from Sweden, which historically had one of the best women’s teams in the world and became the first team outside of the U.S. and Canada to make an Olympic gold medal game in 2006.
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A downward slide for the team culminated with Sweden being relegated to the lower division of the women’s world championship after a disastrous 2019 tournament. Shortly after, Swedish players boycotted the national team over compensation and working conditions.
Head coach Ulf Lundberg was hired in May 2020 to help right the ship.
“It was a big challenge,” he said after the game. “It takes a long time to build something up. It was really fast to erase it. But we built it (back up) and I think it’s strong.”
Sweden qualified for the 2022 Beijing Olympics – where they lost 11-0 to Canada in the quarterfinals – and returned to the top flight of the women’s world championship tournament. The team remained in Group B, where the bottom five teams in the world compete, and had failed to pull off a quarterfinal upset – until now.
“It has been a long few years,” said Hjalmarsson. “But it’s great to finally be able to win this game.”
Barring any upsets in Saturday’s quarterfinal matchups, Sweden will most likely play top-ranked Team USA in the semifinals on Feb. 16.
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Hailey Salvian is a staff writer for The Athletic covering women’s hockey and the NHL. Previously, she covered the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators and served as a general assignment reporter. Follow Hailey on Twitter @hailey_salvian
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