By Philip O’Connor
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Canada sensationally crashed out of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship in the quarter-finals on Thursday, losing 2-1 to co-hosts Denmark in one of the biggest shocks in tournament history.
Sweden swept to a 5-2 win over Czech Republic and will now face Team USA, who beat Finland 5-2 in Stockholm earlier on Thursday, with the Danes facing a Swiss team that thumped Austria 6-0.
The Danish defence performed brilliantly through the first two periods but they were finally breached when Sidney Crosby set up Travis Sanheim to score at the 45:127 mark and few in the crowd would have expected Denmark, who had never finished better than eighth at the world championship, to come back.
However, Nikolaj Ehlers equalised for Denmark in the 58th minute and the game looked set to go to overtime.
Nick Olesen had other ideas, stabbing home the puck from close range to snatch a seismic winner with 48 seconds remaining on the clock to stun the tournament favourites.
“They put us on our heels and we just didn’t handle it the right way,” Canada’s Ryan O’Reilly said.
“They got a good break on the one goal there and we didn’t execute the way we needed to. Give them credit, they played hard tonight.
“I don’t like our schedules, a lot of travel, you could tell in the third we didn’t have our normal jump that we had to.
“We had a chance to win this game and we didn’t. We’re better than what we showed tonight, we’re disappointed, it stings.”
Olesen described the win as “probably the biggest game I ever played in my career”.
“I don’t have any words, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “The fans here were cheering for us all game and they helped us get the win. It was crazy.
“I just saw Ehlers took a shot from the blue line and it went in and I was almost going crazy and then in the end somehow I got the puck and put in, and I went crazy and the crowd went crazy.”
Ehlers echoed his team mate’s excitement, saying: “It was wild!”
“I didn’t see much of the second goal,” he told Danish broadcaster DR. “People were standing, and I was tired, and suddenly the whole bench just went crazy and I thought what the hell is going on?”
In Stockholm, a three-goal salvo in the first period set up Sweden for a comfortable 5-2 win over the Czechs, with Lukas Raymond and Leo Carlsson both netting twice for the co-hosts.
Asked what Canada’s sensational defeat meant for their prospects, Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad, who had a superb backhand assist for one of Carlsson’s goals, gave a blunt assessment.
“Nothing,” he told Reuters. “Clearly, it’s a good team that’s gone out but we have full focus on what we have to do. We spoke about it being a nightmare quarter-final against Czech Republic, it’s a good opponent, but regardless of who we play, it’s going to be tough.
“Full focus on what have to do and what we can do, we take one game at a time and take it from there,” he added.
The semi-finals will be held on Saturday at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; editing by Clare Fallon)
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