Perryville MFA Agri Services

02/13 14:03 CST Traff Svensson stops 29 shots and Sweden upsets Czechia 2-0 in Olympic women's hockey quarterfinals Traff Svensson stops 29 shots and Sweden upsets Czechia 2-0 in Olympic women's hockey quarterfinals By JOHN WAWROW AP Hockey Writer MILAN (AP) --- Coach Ulf Lundberg declared "the time is now" for Sweden before the women's hockey tournament opened at the Milan Cortina Games. A little over a week and five wins later, his young, talented and fearless team has delivered. Hanna Olsson scored, Ebba Traff Svensson stopped 29 shots and Sweden upset Czechia 2-0 on Friday to advance to the semifinal round for the first time in 12 years. "It's a wonderful feeling," Lundberg said of a team that has finished no better than sixth at the past five world championships. "Going back to the worlds in the Czech Republic, we were close. But everyone talks about when are they going to take the step to the semifinal? And now we have done it. I'm so satisfied." After Olsson scored a power-play goal 4:47 into the second period, Hilda Svensson sparked a huge celebration by sealing the victory with an empty-net goal with 25 seconds remaining. Sweden had not advanced to the semifinals since finishing fourth at the 2014 Sochi Games. And the nation is in position to earn its third Olympic medal, and first since winning silver at the 2006 Turin Games, when Sweden upset the U.S. in the semifinals. The Swedes feature a young, talented roster made up of a core of the team that won silver at the 2018 Under-18 championships. There are eight players 22 and younger, with seven currently competing at U.S. colleges. They include Svensson, the 19-year-old Ohio State freshman, who's tied for seventh in the nation with 44 points (15 goals, 29 assists) in 26 games. "I think we proved that we can beat almost every team here and we have a really good group," Svensson said, before correcting herself when asked about saying ?almost.' "I'm just kidding," she added, "every team." Time will tell, because Sweden likely faces a semifinal matchup against the top-seeded and tournament-favored Americans, who play Italy in the day's other quarterfinal. On Saturday, Canada plays Germany and Finland faces Switzerland in a matchup of Group A's fourth- and fifth-place teams. Sweden entered the quarterfinals as the tournament's sixth seed after going 4-0 through preliminary round play to win the Group B title. And the Swedes knocked off a Czech team that finished third in Group A play, behind the U.S. and Canada. The 21-year-old Traff Svensson won her fourth game and recorded her second shutout in her Olympic debut in an outing during which Sweden was outshot 13-5 in the third period alone. Czechia's Klara Peslarova finished with 21 saves. The loss was a major disappointment for a Czech team on the rise since finishing seventh in its Olympic debut at the 2022 Beijing Games. Czechia has since won two bronze medals --- it's first in women's play --- and finished fourth twice over the past four world championships. "There's just no words for this. It hurts. It's going to hurt for a long time," Natalie Mlynkova said. "We were supposed to have this one." The Czechs had difficulty finding a level of consistency through a preliminary round in which they blanked Finland 2-0, but lost a 4-3 shootout decision to Switzerland. Czechia managed just seven goals in five games despite a roster featuring eight Professional Women's Hockey League players, including rookie of the year candidate Kristyna Kaltounkova, who leads the league with 11 goals. "It hurts right now, and that's why you're seeing the tears. They poured so much into this, and it's going to take some time," coach Carla MacLeod said. "But when they get the chance to reflect, and this might be five, 10 years down the way, they're going to be able to look back at these four years and recognize the impact that they've had on Czech women's hockey." ___ AP Olympic coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

	Copyright DTN. All rights reserved. Disclaimer.