Olympics-Ice hockey-Defiant Sweden ready for blockbuster men’s quarter-final with US

By Amy Tennery

MILAN, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Sweden are undaunted ahead of a blockbuster quarter-final meeting with the United States on Wednesday, as the team wearing the three crowns grasps for more gold in an Olympic men’s ice hockey showdown few expected this early.

Sweden were widely favoured to win their group and earn a bye to the quarter-finals, along with Canada and the United States, but were forced to contend in the qualification play-off stage after slipping to the seventh seed out of the preliminary stage.

It was a rare shock in a men’s tournament that has largely stuck to the script in Milan, and Sweden swiftly shook off the disappointment to dispatch Latvia 5-1 on Tuesday and book their trip to the last eight.

“It doesn’t matter how you get here, we’re here now,” said forward Adrian Kempe.

Their lone group-stage defeat to Finland put them on thin ice and Slovakia sent them into the qualification play-off on goal differential in a competitive group that had reporters reaching for calculators to keep up with the tiebreak math.

But they showed another level at just the right time against Latvia, where they scored in quick succession in the first period and went on cruise control from there. 

National Hockey League fans have been dreaming of a gold-medal game between Canada and the United States ever since the top-flight league announced it would return to the Olympic stage after a 12-year absence.

But Sweden will be all too happy to play the spoiler, as they hit another gear in their Milan campaign to win gold for the first time since the Games were last in Italy 20 years ago in Turin. 

“It’s going to be a tough challenge but one we’re prepared for,” said Mika Zibanejad, who will see his New York Rangers team mates J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck on the other side of the ice and his NHL coach behind the U.S. bench in the meeting.

“Little by little it’s been getting better, so that’s a good sign.”

(Reporting by Amy Tennery Giulio Piovaccari and Janina Nuno Rios in Milan; Editing by Bill Berkrot)