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The United States defeated Denmark 6-3 on Saturday in a game that was closer than it should have been. Maja Hitij / Getty Images
MILAN — It’s the kind of goal you’ll see on repeat for a long, long time on blooper reels, but Jeremy Swayman owned it, laughed about it and, most importantly, forgot about it.
When you know you’re more than likely getting your one and only start in the Olympics, giving up a goal from beyond center ice is less than ideal.
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But in the end, Swayman kept battling away and allowed enough of a cushion for the United States to rally for a 6-3 victory over Denmark on Saturday night in a group-stage game.
“It was a flash screen, and it was just the perfect height right between the stands and board level, and I truly lost it,” Swayman said of defenseman Nicholas B. Jensen’s go-ahead goal from next to the Denmark bench in the first period. “Definitely one I want back, but at the same time, especially at this level, you’ve got to stay even-keeled. It’s one shot at a time, and no matter how they go in, you’ve got to step up and stop the next one.
“So just really proud of this group for supporting me and getting the job done tonight.”
Matt Boldy, Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes scored for the United States and Swayman made 18 saves.
But Swayman, maybe lulled to sleep in the second period with the play largely spent in Denmark’s end, also gave up a bad goal with 2.6 seconds left in the period to turn the game into a one-goal nailbiter entering the third before Guentzel and Hughes took care of business.
The U.S. got much-needed insurance goals, first, from its goal-scoring co-leader from the 4 Nations, Guentzel, when Auston Matthews scooped up a loose puck in the slot and teed up Guentzel for a one-timer, and then Hughes, after he sped around a defender and banked a puck off the skate of goaltender Frederik Dichow, who replaced Mads Sogaard a few minutes earlier.
“Unreal. Super fun,” Hughes said. “Just to score with a USA jersey on is a treat. Nice to get on the board.”
U.S. coach Mike Sullivan hasn’t really provided a specific reason why Swayman has overtaken Jake Oettinger as the No. 2 other than that he’s had a good year in Boston. The American brass could have also determined that Swayman earned the role by leading the United States to its first World Championship gold medal last spring by going 7-0 with a 1.69 goals-against average and .921 save percentage.
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Nevertheless, Swayman probably saw the net for the final time absent something unforeseen. And the Americans believe they’ll continue to get better.
“We’re an unfinished product,” Eichel said.
The United States plays its final preliminary game Sunday night against Germany, which was upset by Latvia on Saturday.
“They’re a good team. So are we,” Sullivan said. “We’re excited to compete against them. We know that they have some gamebreakers on that side. We have a lot of respect for how good they are, and it will be a competitive game.”
When Swayman was beaten cleanly by a 95-foot wrist shot from Jensen to put the U.S. down 2-1 in the first period, it was hard not to wonder if a goalie change was in order. But Sullivan, somewhat inexplicably, had Connor Hellebuyck dressed as the backup, not Oettinger. And Hellebuyck is expected to start Sunday against Germany. So even if Swayman was visibly nervous in net in his Olympic debut, he wasn’t getting yanked.
It was a shocking goal, met with a gasp by the heavily pro-American crowd.
“Nine times out of 10 — or 99 times out of 100 — he’s going to have that,” Eichel said. “It’s a crazy play. I don’t know, I lost the puck up in the lights a few times tonight as well. The setting is a little bit different. We don’t fault him. He’s part of our group. He made some huge saves for us at key times of the game. Funky bounce — you just move on.”
Olympic hockey fans of a certain vintage couldn’t help but think of Sweden’s Tommy Salo, who gave up perhaps the worst goal in the history of the Games during Belarus’ monumental upset in Salt Lake City in 2002. With 2:24 left in a tied quarterfinal, Salo was stunned by a slap shot from the neutral zone from defenseman Vladimir Kopat. Salo leapt to block the rising shot — which was almost certainly going over the net, not in it — and the puck deflected off the goaltender’s helmet and into the net, giving Belarus a 4-3 victory that knocked Sweden out of the tournament.
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The goal that Swayman gave up wasn’t nearly as significant — it came in the first period of a group-stage game, not the third period of an elimination game — but it might have been worse from a pure goaltending standpoint. Jensen’s shot was from farther away, more than 90 feet, from just inside the red line, and Swayman didn’t even get a piece of it. The puck may have hit Boldy’s shin, but that was at center ice, and Swayman didn’t seem to see it at all — he had his glove raised as the puck sailed by on the other side.
“First I wanted to dump it, and then I was like, ‘OK, I might as well just put it toward the net,’” Jensen said. “It’s hard to see with the bleachers, but no, I got lucky. And I appreciate he gave me that.”
Both NBC and CBC broadcast crews wondered if the dark Olympic banner over the boards may have caused him to lose the puck.
Swayman was making no excuses.
I’m colorblind, so it doesn’t matter to me,” Swayman said, laughing. “It’s something all of us always have to face, and we play in different arenas every night in the NHL, so this is just one, another one, and it’s a challenge that we have to embrace.”
The color of the boards couldn’t be blamed for the goal he allowed at the end of the second period. After the Americans stormed back from a 2-1 deficit with three goals in an eight-minute span, Swayman gave up another bad goal on a slap shot from the blue line by Phillip Bruggisser. The goal cut the lead to 4-3 in a period Denmark had only four shots.
But Matthews, who had a tough time in his Olympic debut against Latvia, capped a strong game by setting up Guentzel for a needed goal in the third.
“I felt better tonight,” Matthews said. “I thought I had the puck a lot, made some good plays. I think the chemistry’s growing with our line. I think we’ve had some good chances, had some good shifts. Just want to continue to put that together for a full 60 minutes.”
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The Finns came into their game against Italy on Saturday afternoon knowing that every goal counted, and they piled them up, winning 11-0. It wasn’t very nice, but it was important. For Finland, goal differential could have been the difference between a bye to the quarterfinal and a do-or-die qualification game.
“This was probably the only game I didn’t feel bad just because (of) the goal differential, I knew how much that matters for second place, to get the bye to the quarterfinals,” Mikko Rantanen said. “So today I didn’t feel bad.”
The U.S. didn’t play with nearly the same aggression. Denmark might not be as weak as Italy, but it’s not exactly a superpower, either. This was a squandered opportunity for the U.S. to pad its stats.
The big picture here is that the U.S. is fighting Canada for the tournament’s top seed, assuming the U.S. beats Germany on Sunday in regulation and Canada does the same against France. That would leave both the U.S. and Canada with perfect records and 9 points in the standings, and the tiebreak would come down to goal differential. Canada is at plus-9 through two games, while the U.S. is now at plus-7. So the Americans will have to beat Germany by three more goals than Canada beats France by, to take the top seed.
What’s at stake is that the second seed is likely to face powerhouse Sweden in the quarterfinals, while the top seed would most likely face either Switzerland or the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia.
Asked if he understands how the whole goal differential thing works, Guentzel said, “A little bit, but not too much. I know some things happened today, but we don’t know exactly what’s going on, so I think we’ll look into it (now).”
One game after a couple of assists against Latvia, Eichel continued his strong play with a goal and an assist.
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Tkachuk’s second goal of the tournament — the tying goal in the second — came off an Eichel faceoff win, then Eichel scored a go-ahead goal off Matthew Tkachuk’s solid play.
“He always shines brightest in the biggest stages,” said Hanifin, Eichel’s close friend and Vegas teammate.
Eichel between the Tkachuk brothers has been the United States’ most consistent line two games into the Olympics.
“Jack’s 200-foot game is incredible,” U.S. general manager Bill Guerin said. “Ever since he went to Vegas, he just really matured, and he kind of transformed into this — he’s always been able to produce, that’s not the issue — but he’s become an elite two-way forward.”
Despite the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s saber-rattling about taking Greenland from Denmark, there was no sign of frustration or anti-American sentiment from the Danish partisans. Other than one Greenland flag that was briefly displayed by a fan during warmups, the game went off without any political fanfare.
At the 4 Nations Face-Off last February, Canadian fans booed the U.S. national anthem in Montreal amid Trump’s talk of making Canada “the 51st state.” The political moment became a central part of why the 4 Nations Face-Off drew so much attention, with hockey making its way into national news and politics programming.
Interestingly enough, they don’t play the anthems before Olympic games the way the NHL does. Only the gold medal winner gets its anthem played at the end of the tournament.
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