Olympic Hockey: William Nylander scores game-winner in Team Sweden win over Team Italy

Wednesday afternoon’s Olympic men’s hockey match between Team Sweden and Team Italy was a lot closer than people may have predicted it would be. Despite Sweden outshooting the Italians 59-18, the host country kept things close with an eventual 5-2 win for Sweden. Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander scored the game-winner for Team Sweden, scoring the third goal of the game after Italy took an early 1-0 lead and eventually fought back to tie it 2-2.

Nylander was a game-time decision heading into the tournament-opener for Sweden after missing practice on Tuesday, but he was deemed good to go before the game and ended up with a positive contribution. Sweden’s other goals came from Colorado Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog, Florida Panthers defenceman Gustav Forsling, New York Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad, and Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman (EN). Luca Frigo and Matt Bradley scored for the Italians.

The player of the game for either side was undoubtedly Italy goaltender and Anaheim Ducks prospect Damian Clara, who was single-handedly keeping Italy in it before he was injured while making a save on Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson’s breakaway attempt. Clara finished the game with 40 saves on 43 shots before leaving the game and being relieved by Davide Fadani.

Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Oliver Ekman-Larsson was dressed for this game but was the team’s seventh defenceman and logged only one shift in the game, skating for a total of 1:07. Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg was the extra forward for the Swedes and didn’t log any ice time.

The men’s hockey facet of the Olympics will continue on Thursday with a full slate of games. Team France will face Team Switzerland to kick off the day, followed by Team Canada against Team Czechia, before Auston Matthews and Team USA take on Team Latvia in the afternoon in correspondence with Team Germany and Team Denmark.