Olympics women’s hockey, Sweden vs. Japan highlights, score, recap

For the second straight Olympics, Japan gave Sweden a good scare in Olympics women’s hockey. However, in the end, Sweden came out on top 2-1. 

Going into Saturday’s Olympics women’s hockey match between Sweden and Japan, everyone expected the former to come out on top. After all, they were ranked fifth, compared to their seventh-ranked opponents. However, Japan nearly pulled off a massive upset before eventually falling to Sweden 2-1.

Sara Hjalmarsson scored the game-winning goal in the third period to give Tre Konor the win. For Sweden, Sara Gahn had 30 saves and helped them avoid a potential upset. Fanny Rask, whose brother Victor plays for the Carolina Hurricanes, scored the first goal of the game. Olivia Carlsson, Erika Grahm, and Sabina Küller picked up assists for Sweden.

Japan played quite admirably, just as they did in 2014. But at the end of the day, they couldn’t score when they needed to. Nana Fujimoto was in goal for Japan. She finished the game with a .923 save percentage. 21-year-old forward Rui Ukita scored the lone goal for Japan. On her goal, Hanae Kubo picked up the assist.

Sweden advances to 1-0-0, so they’re off to a very good start. Ideally, they’d like their next games to be a little less dramatic, but still, a win is a win. Japan falls to 0-1-0 and probably deserved a better result than what they got.

Highlights

Next: Best Olympian from each state

What’s Next

Sweden will face Korea on Monday, Feb. 12. Their match will begin at 7:10 a.m. ET. Because Korea is a unified team, Sweden has never played them before. However, they have a very good record against South Korea.

Meanwhile, Japan will try to regroup when they face Switzerland. Their game will also be on Monday, Feb. 12. Japan and Switzerland will be the earlier of the two games on Monday, as they’ll start at 2:40 a.m. ET.

Check out FanSided’s Olympics page for updated coverage, results, and highlights!