Olympic Hockey Day 4 Recap: Slovakia Clinches, Finland Runs Riot and USA Survives Denmark

The best-on-best tournament continued today, with plenty of dramatic moments. Sweden both won and lost today, winning their game but not by enough, and failing to clinch their group. Meanwhile, Finland made Olympic history with their crushing victory over Italy. Latvia and Germany squared off, with the former surprising many and winning its first Olympic game in over a decade. We also saw the Mike Sullivan-led Americans struggle early against Denmark, with Jeremy Swayman looking shaky in net.

Sweden vs. Slovakia

• After their unexpected loss against Scandinavian rival Finland, for Sweden to win their group and get the automatic bye, they needed to beat Slovakia by three goals.
• The game started on even footing with both teams scoring a goal in the first period. After Rasmus Dahlin went to the penalty box for holding, it would be Sweden who would strike first. Joel Eriksson Ek and Adrian Kempe corralled the puck high in Sweden's zone and broke out in a two-on-one. Eriksson Ek threaded a nifty pass to Kempe, Samuel Hlavaj made a big stop, but Eriksson Ek crashed the net and put in the rebound.
• Juraj Slafkovsky continued to be an international powerhouse, quickly getting one back for Slovakia after ripping a one-timer past Jacob Markstrom.

• The two teams would continue matching each other on the scoreboard, both scoring their second goal of the game in the first half of the period. Adrian Kempe and Martin Gernat of the KHL scored their team's second goal of the game.
• After taking a commanding lead in shots, Sweden would break through, with Elias Pettersson scoring two goals, his second coming halfway through the third.
• Sweden would finally accomplish the three-goal difference they were chasing when Lucas Raymond, after taking a pass from Mika Zibanejad, made a flashy move to put the puck into the back of the net.
• Raymond's hero status would last less than ten minutes. As the game wound down, he took a slashing penalty, giving Slovakia the power play and the chance to score, which they did, making it a two goal game.

• Though ahead by two, Sweden, desperate to regain that three-goal lead, pulled Markstrom but was unable to score. This allowed Slovakia to win Group B and avoid the first round of the knockout stage.

Germany vs. Latvia

• This game would be inconsequential to the standings as neither team has a chance at winning their group or being the best runner-up.
• Germany's Lukas Reichel would open scoring in the first, but Latvia responded quickly, tying it.
• Near the end of the period, Germany would regain the lead, but early in the second period, Providence Bruin Dans Locmelis would score his second goal, tying the game for Latvia yet again.

• It was after this that Germany lost control of the game. Latvia opened the third period, scoring a pair of goals. Zemgus Girgensons picked up his second assist of the game, and Albert Smits, a top prospect for the 2026 NHL draft, picked up an assist as well.
• Smits, who is projected to go in the top ten of the upcoming draft and could very likely be a Rangers target, has looked good throughout the Olympics, but against Germany showed a level of composure and defensive acumen that reflects why he has been such a highly regarded prospect.
• Germany began piling it on, trying to get back in the game, but down two goals as the period counted down, they were in a tough spot. Their big names finally showed up, with Stutzle and Draisaitl teaming up to bring them within one,, but it was too little, too late, as Germany surprisingly dropped this game to Latvia.
• This is Latvia's first win at the Olympics since 2014, when they beat Switzerland.

Finland vs. Italy

• After some mixed yet unexpected results against Slovakia and Sweden, Finland's matchup against the host nation, Italy, was gearing up to be their easiest hurdle in the preliminary round of the Olympic tournament.
• Italy was able to stick around and put up a fight in their previous games, but playing against the Finns, the commentators noted early on how the team looked more sluggish and appeared to be out of gas. Without a single NHLer on their roster, competing against stacked international teams appears to have taken its toll on the Italians.
• Finland wasted no time in getting to work. Superstar Mikko Rantanen led the way in the first period, assisting on Finland's first two goals in the first ten minutes of the game. But Finland didn't stop there, potting another one before the period ended, this time former friend Kaapo Kakko getting his first of the game.
• Finland continued to run up the score in the second period. Embarrassingly outplaying Italy, it took about 12 minutes of the second period for Italy to get their first shot of the period.
• Kakko scored his second goal of the game, I'm sure sending many in the Rangers fandom into an emotional state of disarray.

• As the third period started, Finland was up 6-0, and Italy felt it prudent to swap out their goaltenders. It would have little impact on the game as Finland struck twice in the first two minutes of the period, Rantanen getting his third assist on Miro Heiskanen's power-play goal, a familiar sight for Dallas Stars fans, increasing Finland's lead to eight.
• Finland didn't take their foot off the gas and kept scoring at a historic rate. Finland had six players score, with four scoring twice. At what point for Team Italy does this go from just happy to be here to a humiliation ritual?
• Olympic coverage in the United States has at times been difficult to follow along, with the USA network abruptly cutting away from the game when Finland was up 9-0 with twelve minutes left in the game. Due to this, many missed Finland, making history and reaching double digits when Joel Armia scored his second goal of the game.

• While being outscored by a prodigious margin, Italy did find some life in the final frame, getting a few more shots on net and ending the game with fifteen. However, Juuse Saros was perfect, and Italy fell to Finland 11-0.

USA vs. Denmark

• Team USA, the heavy favorite to win their group, was facing off against Denmark in what many anticipated to be another thrashing by the Americans.
• Mike Sullivan, likely looking to get each of his goalies some time in net, started Jeremy Swayman today, and things were immediately shaky for the Bruins netminder.
• On an odd play, Nicholas B. Jensen, not to be confused with former Ranger Nicklas Jensen, who is also on Team Denmark, crashed the net, and the puck ricocheted off of him and Zach Werenski, giving Denmark an early one-goal lead.
• USA quickly tied the game, and seemed to put the fire out as Matt Boldy on a great individual effort took a pass from Quinn Hughes and carried the puck into the offensive zone. He put a shot on net, grabbed his rebound, and wrapped around the net, tucking it past Mads Sogaard.
• USA was quickly pulling ahead in almost all categories, but surprising everyone, even himself, Denmark's Nick Olesen went to dump the puck into USA's zone, but instead put it on net. Swayman, not expecting the shot, lost track of the puck as the shot from center ice sailed over his shoulder into the net, giving Denmark the 2-1 lead and deflating the Americans' momentum.

• Brady Tkachuk got physical after the buzzer sounded ending the first period, as a small scrum broke out. It cleared up and Team USA went into the intermission unexpectedly down 2-1.
• The second period was passing by without the equalizer from USA and you could palpably feel the pressure mounting. But just when concern was beginning to be acknowledged, Jack Eichel cleanly won an offensive zone face-off and Brady Tkachuk wristed the puck over Sogaard's glove hand, tying the game for the Americans.
• A minute later, Team USA would rinse and repeat with Eichel winning an offensive zone face-off, this time grabbing the puck himself and shooting it past Sogaard, to give USA their first lead of the game.
• Trocheck would get on the scoreboard, assisting on Hanifin's goal that barely crossed the line, as Team USA continued pushing forward.
• Despite their struggles against Denmark today, there is no question that Team USA fans are also elite. Watch the end of the clip below to see the celebration of Hanifin's goal.

• Just when USA thought they had some breathing room, Denmark kept at it and scored with less than three seconds left in the period to make it a one-goal game.
• Coming out of the intermission into the final period, Sullivan had the Americans pushing and not taking their one-goal lead for granted. It didn't take long for their cycle to break through after Auston Matthews and Werenski passed the puck back and forth to set up Jake Guentzel to regain the two-goal lead for Team USA.
• Denmark replaced Sogaard with Montreal Canadiens 2019 fifth-round pick Frederik Dichow after Sogaard stretched to make a pad save and looked a bit uncomfortable after.
• The game would continue opening up offensively and physically. Jack Hughes got a goal of his own to increase their lead to three. Any time a scrum would open up post-whistle, it was all but guaranteed one of the Tkachuk brothers was at the center of it.
• As Kenny Albert said at the end, for the second straight game, both Tkachuk and Hughes brothers had points at the Americans though making many nervous at first, cruised to a 6-3 victory over Denmark.