MILAN — The qualifying playoffs of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 was Tuesday.
Team Germany eliminated Team France, 5-1, Team Switzerland got by Team Italy, 3-0. Team Czechia edged Team Denmark 3-2, and Team Sweden defeated Team Latvia 5-1.
NHL.com is on site in Milan and will provide insights and observations each day.
Here are 5 things learned from Day 7 of the men’s hockey tournament at the Olympics:
Markstrom’s the man
Jacob Markstrom has put together consecutive quality starts for Team Sweden. It’s unclear if he will get the start against Team USA in the quarterfinals Wednesday as it would mean starts on consecutive nights, but it looks fairly clear at this point that Markstrom, the New Jersey Devils goalie, is the favorite for coach Sam Hallam after making 20 saves in the 5-1 win against Team Latvia in the qualification round Tuesday. He also made 29 saves in a 5-3 win against Team Slovakia on Sunday. However, the third goal he allowed at 19:21 of the third period is the reason why Sweden had to play in the qualification round. Regardless, Markstrom has been steady in his two starts whereas Filip Gustavsson looked shaky in his two, a 5-2 win against Team Italy and a 4-1 loss to Team Finland. Gustavsson allowed three first-period goals in his two starts; Markstrom has allowed one, against Slovakia. Gustavsson didn’t dress Tuesday as Hallam instead went with Jesper Wallstedt as the backup. Did he do that to save Gustavsson for the quarterfinals against the U.S.? Anything is possible, but it’s hard to believe Hallam would leave his preferred goalie out of the lineup in a must-win game against Latvia just to save him for the U.S. There were no guarantees. They had to win Tuesday and he went with Markstrom, who got the job done. It would be surprising at this point if he doesn’t go back to him in another must-win game 24 hours later.
