After taking down Team USA, Denmark, Switzerland, and Canada respectively, the Men’s hockey teams from Slovakia, the ROC, Finland, and Sweden find themselves in the Final Four of the 2022 Men’s Olympic Hockey tournament.
The semifinals being tonight at 11:10PM with Finland and Slovakia.
Slovakia pulled off what could only be described as a big upset over Team USA, who had gone undefeated through the tournament before losing to Slovakia 3-2 in a shootout. Forward Juraj Slafkovsky remains the one to watch for Team Slovakia; the 6’4” 17-year old is Slovakia’s leading goal scorer with 5 goals thus far in these Olympics.
Finland made easy work of Switzerland, winning that quarterfinal matchup by a definitive 5-1. The Finnish team features two of the leading scorers in these Olympics; Sakari Manninen is tied for second with 6 points (3 goals, 3 assists) and Teemu Hartikainen is right behind him with 2 goals and 4 assists. Valtteri Filppula has 2 assists thus far — in case you were wondering.
The second and final game of this round of the tournament will be played tomorrow morning at 8:10AM (Philly time) between defending champions: ROC and Team Sweden.
ROC took out Denmark by a score of 3-1 to advance to the semis, with goals from Vadim Shipachyov and Nikita Nesterov and 16 saves on 17 shots by Flyers’ prospect Ivan Fedotov. Sweden’s 2-0 win over Team Canada was a closer game than the score implies, with Lucas Wallmark’s goal coming with about ten minutes left in the third and Anton Lander sealing the deal with an empty-net goal in the final two minutes of the game.
Lucas Wallmark is Sweden’s leading scorer with 5 goals which is enough to make him the 5th highest scorer in the tournament as a whole. Nikita Gusev leads the ROC in points with 5 assists, Nikita Nesterov is their leading goal scorer with 2 goals and 1 assist.
How to watch
Be sure you check your local cable listings to confirm, but here in Philadelphia both tonight’s Finland-Slovakia game and tomorrow morning’s ROC-Sweden game will be broadcast live on the USA Network.
As with all of the Olympic action, you can stream live using the NBC Sports app or going to NBCOlympics.com. Our pals over at DraftKings continue to be the place to go if you like to spice up your sports watching experience, so be sure to check them out for all your wagering needs.
