2022 Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey. We are now on day three of the tournament. I didn’t get a chance to cover yesterdays action in a blog. I will cover it here. There were 4 games in the Men’s tournament. Denmark played ROC (Russia). Czech Republic played Switzerland. Sweden played Slovakia. Latvia played Finland. There are four more Men’s Ice Hockey group stage games coming up tonight.
I want to cover what I missed in day 2. I wanted to write that blog but didn’t get a chance. So I am going to talk about it here. Sweden beat Latvia 3 to 2. I don’t think the game should have been as close as it was. There was a no call no whistle after knee on knee contact. That should have result in a Latvia penalty. There was a no call no whistle when a Latvia player took the Sweden goal into the back of the net. I think it should have been a whistle probably not a penalty though. Finland beat Slovakia 6 to 2. Pretty even on shots. Finland was able to capitalize on the powerplay. That made the difference in that game. The United States beat China 8 to 0. I will be doing a in depth game review of that game. Canada beat Germany 5 to 1. Canada proving that they are still a powerhouse even without the NHL.
Denmark played ROC (Russia) in some Group B action. There was no score after the first period. Denmark took a penalty for hooking with under 5 minutes left in the first period. ROC (Russia) could not capitalize on that powerplay. ROC (Russia) scored the first goal of the game about half way through the second period. After a pretty close game Denmark pulled their goal with about a minute to go in the third period. ROC (Russia) would score the empty netter. The Final score was 2-0 ROC (Russia).
ROC (Russia) is now 2-0-0. ROC (Russia) has also not allowed a goal in group play yet. ROC (Russia) currently looks like the strongest team in Group B. However a big weakness is that they have not scored a lot of goals. They also have had a strong powerplay. Denmark is now 1-1-0. They couldn’t find any offense in this one. Will Denmark continue struggle offensively moving forward?
Czech Republic vs Switzerland. Switzerland took an interference penalty two minutes into the game. Czech Republic would score just after the powerplay. A few minutes later Czech Republic took a penalty for tripping. Switzerland would tie the game on the power play. The score was 1-1 less then 10 minutes into the game. Neither team would score in the rest of regulation. No one scored in overtime. The game went into a shootout. Czech Republic would score on their first shot of the shootout. That would be the only goal of the shootout. Czech Republic won the game 2 to 1.
Like a lot of these men’s games have been it was a close battle. Czech Republic is now 1-1-0. Switzerland is now 0-1-1. Group B teams seem to be struggling to find goals. We will see if that trend continues.
Sweden vs Slovakia. Onto some Group C action now. Sweden dominated the first period. They scored thee goals in the first period. Two of those goals came in the last 2 minutes of play. Sweden took a 3-0 lead into the second period. Slovakia would make a goaltending change to start the second period. It was still 3-0 after two periods. Slovakia would pull their goalie late in the third period. Sweden would score the empty netter. Slovakia would pull their goal again. Slovakia would get one back. The final score was 4-1 Sweden.
It was too little too late for Slovakia in this one. They just could find the back of the net. They outshot Sweden by 12 shots. Swedens goaltending coming up big for them with that. Sweden moves to 2-0-0. Slovakia is now 0-2-0.
Latvia vs Finland. Some Group C action here. The score was 0-0 after the first period. Finland was able to score in the last couple minutes of period two. Finland took a 1-0 lead into the third period. Latvia scored on the power play in the opening minutes of the third period. That would tie the game. With about 6 minutes left Finland would score to take the lead. they would score again with a little over a minute left in the game. The final score was 3-1 Finland.
Latvia continued to struggle. Finland is now 2-0-0. Latvia is now 0-2-0. Latvia is finding ways to keep games close. They just haven’t been able to find ways to win. It seems like they are falling apart in the last ten minutes of games so far.
Here are the current standing:
Here is an image from the KHL Facebook page that does a really good job at explaining the standings.
Here are the upcoming games:
Huge game tonight between The United States and Canada the winner will probably win Group A. Who is better the USA or Canada? That’s the question going into that game. Will China upset Germany? How much will Germany win by? Will ROC (Russia) make it three straight shutouts? Will Czech Republic be able to find goals? Will Switzerland get their first win? Will Denmark be able to challenge ROC (Russia) for the top spot in Group B?
Zac Electrifly 