Damian Clara almost authored a stunning upset on Day 1 of the Olympic men’s hockey tournament.
The Italian netminder stood on his head before exiting with an injury in what ended as a 5-2 loss to Sweden on Wednesday.
Sweden totalled 60 shots in the game, beating Clara thrice and his replacement Davide Fadani once. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, it set the Olympic record for most shots on net in a single game in the “NHL era.”
Rasmus Dahlin led the way for Sweden with three assists in 19:52 of ice time, while Gustav Forsling and Mika Zibanejad each chipped in a goal and an assist in the game.
Filip Gustavsson made 20 saves in net for Sweden, which returns to the ice on Friday against Finland.
Despite entering the game as the heavy favourite, Sweden didn’t cruise past Clara and the Italians. In fact, the Swedes faced an early 1-0 deficit after Luca Frigo scored just over four minutes into the first period.
Sweden, however, lived in the offensive end for much of the game and managed to respond fairly quickly. Gabriel Landeskog and Forsling both scored in the first to help Sweden take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Italy didn’t go away, though. Matt Bradley scored just 37 seconds into the second period to level the score and put the pressure back on Sweden to avoid being upset in its first game of the tournament.
William Nylander stepped up when the moment called for it, delivering what stood as the game-winner at 16:46 in the second after jumping on a rebound and putting it past a sprawling Clara.
The Swedes locked down on the defensive end from there, keeping Italy off the scoreboard in the third period on the way to the victory.
Zibanejad added an insurance marker at 15:42 of the third and Victor Hedman scored on the empty net to help Sweden in the goal differential column going forward.
The win lifts Sweden into a tie with Slovakia atop Group B after its earlier win over Finland. Italy, meanwhile, falls even with the Finns.
