MILAN — Team Sweden won two of its three preliminary games yet couldn’t take a victory lap after either of them.
First was a win over Italy, in which a roster without any NHL players pushed the star-studded Swedes to a 2-2 tie after two periods.
Then came Saturday, in which Dalibor Dvorsky’s power-play goal with 39 seconds left meant that, despite a 5-3 win for Sweden, Slovakia ended up atop Group B after Finland secured a blowout win over Italy.
“We did all the right things to score five goals, and you win the hockey game,” said Jacob Markstrom, the Devils’ netminder who started and made 29 saves in his first game of the Olympics. “But it feels like a loss.”
Sweden did not even finish in second place in the group, with that honor — and the potential for a bye into the quarterfinals — going to the Finns, who rebounded well after a shock loss to Slovakia opened their Games.
Coach Sam Hallam reminded reporters that, in the 2010 Games, eventual gold medalist Canada had to play the extra game after losing to Team USA in the prelims.
Without a doubt, Saturday was his club’s best game of three so far.
Hallam made a series of changes to his lineup, most notably moving Gabriel Landeskog up to the second line with Lucas Raymond and Mika Zibanejad while inserting Marcus Johansson into the lineup for the first time, and onto the third line with Filip Forsberg and Elias Pettersson.
Crucially, Sweden got some results from its horses.
Raymond scored a beautiful solo goal, while Pettersson — who had yet to record a point either in these Olympics or in last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off — scored twice.
Slovakia, the surprise team of these games, pushed the Swedes hard but never led.
“I saw a lot of really good improvements today,” Landeskog said. “All the areas where we want to be better, I thought we were today. Defensively, I thought we kept them to the outside. We were quick to contact in the neutral zone. Offensively, I thought we did a better job hanging onto pucks.”
And yet, Sweden still feels a distant third — at best — to the U.S. and Canada at these games.
They still have a goaltender dilemma; Hallam wouldn’t commit to Markstrom as his starter, and Filip Gustavsson was shaky in both his starts.
They did not put together a single convincing win during a group stage in which, despite playing archrivals Finland, they were expected to easily come out on top.
“If we go to the quarters or not, doesn’t really matter,” Victor Hedman said. “We gotta win out [from] here. Now, the fun starts.”
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