The St. Louis Blues forward Dalibor Dvorsky scored with 39 seconds remaining to send Slovakia to the Olympic quarterfinals as Group B winners despite losing 5-3 to Sweden on Saturday.
Slovakia advanced through a three-way tiebreaker when Finland defeated host Italy 11-0 later in the day. Goal differential among the tied teams determined the final standings.
“It’s probably the best loss I ever had,” said Slovakia’s Juraj Slafkovsky, the reigning Olympic MVP who’s tied with Canada’s Connor McDavid for the most points in the tournament with six apiece. “It’s crazy, but we take it.”
Dvorsky’s power-play goal came after a penalty on Lucas Raymond. The Blues forward called it the best loss of his life.
“We all know what we need to do on the ice,” Dvorsky said. “There was not too much tactics, right? And at this point of the game, just try to get pucks to the net. And at the end, it was a rebound that was the goal.”
Sweden played much better than in Friday’s 4-1 loss to Finland but couldn’t capitalize on their opportunity. Coach Sam Hallam pulled goaltender Jacob Markstrom in the final seconds while leading by two goals because of the tiebreaker situation.
Sweden didn’t score again.
“Tough pill to swallow,” alternate captain Victor Hedman said. “But we will regroup. We’ll be ready for our next challenge.”
Markstrom stopped 29 of 32 shots and may have supplanted Filip Gustavsson as Sweden’s starter moving forward. Sweden is locked into the seventh seed and must play in Tuesday’s qualification round to reach Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
“It is what it is,” Hallam said. “Just look ahead, everything that’s really good never comes easy.”
The U.S. plays Denmark on Saturday night looking to keep pace with unbeaten Canada for the top seed.
Finland beats host Italy 11-0
Sebastian Aho, Kaapo Kakko, Joel Kiviranta and captain Mikael Granlund each scored twice for Finland in an 11-0 victory over host Italy.
The 11-goal margin made it the most lopsided men’s hockey game at the Olympics since 1988, when Sweden beat France 13-2.
Goal differential incentivized the Finns to run up the score against an overmatched opponent. At one point, Finland had eight goals and Italy had eight shots.
“I’d expect nothing less,” Italy captain Thomas Larkin said. “That’s the game we’re playing here. Yeah, that stings for us obviously from a pride perspective but also in the standings.”
Finland coach Antti Pennanen told his players about the tiebreaker situation before puck drop.
“They knew that, and then we told them honestly what is the situation,” Pennanen said. “We had a plan. First plan: win the game. And then do goals as much as you can.”
Finland advances to the quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed.
Latvia upsets Germany
Latvia defeated Germany 4-3 behind Arturs Silovs of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who stopped 26 of 29 shots.
“We’re a good team,” said Zemgus Girgensons of the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of 10 NHL players on Latvia’s roster. “We believed it. I don’t think we go into the game thinking it’s going to be any other way. We came in today thinking we’re going to win. And that’s what we did. We on paper, probably the best team we’ve had. We’re just going to keep gaining better by every game.”
Germany’s Philipp Grubauer, who was excellent in an opening win against Denmark despite being outshot badly, allowed four goals on 22 shots.
“We just got to find a way to score,” said Tim Stützle, who scored Germany’s third goal. “That’s it. We got to go in the hard areas, know where the other guy is and then make those plays.”
Germany faces the U.S. on Sunday night.
