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2022 Olympic How to Watch Quarterfinal 2: Canada vs. Sweden

Top-seeded Canada meets eight-seeded Sweden in this quarterfinal matchup in Beijing. For Canada, they’ll have their sights set on a return to the gold medal game after a perfect start to the tournament. For Sweden, they’ll be trying to make the most of their return to the top-eight.

How to Watch

Friday, Feb. 11, 8:10 a.m. ET

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Preliminary Round Recap

Canada (1st in Group A, 4-0-0-0, 33 GF, 5 GA)

Canada tore through the round robin, scoring double-digit goals against Switzerland and Finland to start off the tournament and beating Team USA in the final game to finish on top of Group A.

Sweden (3rd in Group B, 2-0-0-2, 7 GF, 8 GA)

It came down to the wire for the Swedes, but they beat Denmark in their last game in the preliminary round to advance to the quarterfinals. Their wins came against the Danes and Team China, while they dropped their games against Czechia and Japan.

Keys to the Game

Canada

For the Canadians, scoring early (and often) in Beijing has become a theme. If they can keep that up in the quarterfinal, they’ll kill any early momentum for the Swedes and control the game right from the start.

They’re also getting excellent play from their top-two lines. Sarah Nurse moved up to the top line in place of against ROC after Clark was pulled as a precautionary measure due to an inconclusive test; she remained there for the USA game. The line of Nurse, Brianne Jenner, and Marie-Philip Poulin has scored five goals in Canada’s last two games.

Finally, Canada will want a consistent effort for all three periods after a slow first period against Team USA to close out the preliminary round.

Sweden

Sweden didn’t score more than two goals against a goaltender in any of their preliminary round games, and they’ll be going up against the most high-powered offense in the entire tournament. They’ll need to find ways to create more dangerous chances for themselves and convert when they do.

On top of that, goaltending will obviously be very important, and so will tight defense. Sweden will need to do what they can to keep Canada’s players from the middle of the ice, and from keeping possession for too long. Sweden currently leads the tournament with a 100% perfect penalty kill, although they’re going up against the best power play (Canada’s clicking at a 46.15% success rate right now).

Key Players

Canada: Brianne Jenner

Coming into this tournament, Jenner had only scored one goal in Olympic play. She’s now scored five times in Beijing. She’s consistently one of Canada’s biggest threats when she’s on the ice and she’s quickly become a prominent producer for this team.

Sweden: Emma Söderberg

Söderberg has played all four games for Sweden and posted a .951 save percentage and 1.77 goals-against average. She’s likely to see a much higher volume of shots from Team Canada, though, than in any other game she’s played so far, so she’ll need to be on her game to help give Sweden a chance at the victory.

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