Olympics men’s hockey, Sweden vs. Germany results and highlights

Sweden came out swinging in their Group C game against Germany in men’s hockey. The Swedes took an early lead and never looked back.

Viktor Stalberg scored early on for Sweden, and after that all the Swedes had to  was to keep the Germans away from the net to come away with a 1-0 victory. Two minutes into the game Team Sweden scored on a breakaway shot that stunned the German team and gave them the early lead.

It’s notable that Germany hasn’t won against Sweden in over 50 years at the Olympics, but it’s also notable that Sweden couldn’t score again after that first goal early on. This is something Team Sweden will have to work on if they’re going to make it deep in this competition.

German goaltender Timo Palmeier did a great job defending the net after that first goal. While they lost this game, the Germans can be confident that their defense is solid and they need to work on taking advantage of each and every scoring opportunity.

Both teams were fairly even statistically, with Sweden trailing the Germans 28-26 in shots on goal but they led with 28 saves over Team Germany’s 25. Sweden racked up five penalties and only spent 5:49 in power plays while Germany had only three penalties and 8:40 in power plays.

Swedish hockey phenom and projected top-pick in the 2018 draft, 17-year-old Rasmus Dahlin, played in his first Olympics game. He logged just over four minutes on the ice but made his presence known in his debut.

Next: Best Olympian from each state

Next up for Germany is a game against Norway on Feb. 17. Norway is coming off a 4 -0 loss to Sweden and both teams will look to notch a win in these Olympics games. Sweden takes on Finland, which took a 5-0 win over Olympics Athletes from Russia in their last outing, on Feb. 18.