Sweden's Tre Kronor defeated Latvia 5–1 in the Olympic hockey round of 16 in Milano. The win sets up a quarterfinal against the USA on Wednesday evening. Coach Sam Hallam stresses full focus on the next game.
Tre Kronor lived up to their favorite status in Milano's Santagiulia Arena by defeating Latvia 5–1 in an extra match stemming from Slovakia's late goal in the group stage. The game started strongly for Sweden, who took the lead with two goals within 41 seconds in the first period. Adrian Kempe deflected in 1–0 on a pass from Joel Eriksson Ek, followed by Gabriel Landeskog's 2–0 from close range behind Latvia's NHL goaltender Elvis Merzlikins.
In the second period, Filip Forsberg made it 3–0 with an assist from Erik Karlsson. Latvia pulled one back through Eduards Tralmaks on a rebound from Swedish goaltender Jacob Markström, giving the home team energy and several chances, including a late power play. Sweden weathered the storm, and Mika Zibanejad scored 4–1 early in the third. William Nylander finished with 5–1 on the power play.
Lucas Raymond stood out with three assists in the game and now has eight points in four Olympic matches. Coach Sam Hallam told SVT: “We did what we needed, now it's just full focus on tomorrow.” He added: “I think we did it very well at times. It's nice to be in the driver's seat and play on that.” Raymond commented on the USA matchup: “USA is a good team and so are we. We've found our game more and more each match. We need to do the same against USA. Come out quick and hard and match their speed.”
In background, Sweden beat the USA 2–1 in last year's Four Nations but lost 6–2 to them in the May World Championship semifinal. The quarterfinal against gold favorite USA will be a tough challenge less than a day after the Latvia game.
