Team Sweden facing gauntlet in knockout stage at Olympics

MILAN -- Team Sweden faces a gauntlet at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

Seeded seventh after the preliminary round, the Swedes enter the single-elimination portion of the men's hockey tournament needing to defeat Team Latvia and Team USA on back-to-back days to reach the semifinals.

Do that, and they could have to face Team Canada.

"That's what the Olympics are all about," forward Filip Forsberg said.

Sweden plays Latvia in the qualification playoffs at Santagiulia Arena on Tuesday (9:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, CBC), with the winner advancing to play the United States in the quarterfinals there Wednesday (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, CBC Gem, CBC).

A loss would to Latvia would be Sweden's most disappointing in the Olympics since the shocking 4-3 loss to Team Belarus in the quarterfinals at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. In a way, it would be worse. The Swedes have never been eliminated from an Olympic tournament with NHL players before the quarters.

Latvia defeated Sweden 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the 2023 IIHF World Championship. Sweden coach Sam Hallam was behind the bench for that tournament too, but doesn't read much into it. One player on Sweden's Olympic roster, Detroit Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond, played that game. It was before 9,200 fans in Riga, Latvia. The Swedes had a 41-15 advantage in shots.

"This is a completely different group," Hallam said. "And if we look at the last two Worlds, many of these players played against Latvia, and we've done pretty decent performances."

Sweden defeated Latvia 7-2 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, in 2024 and 6-0 in Stockholm in 2025, each time in the preliminary round.

Still, the Latvians are dangerous.

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Arturs Silovs made 40 saves when Latvia upset Sweden at the 2023 Worlds, and he's one of the options at the Olympics with Elvis Merzlikins of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

"Good goaltending duo," Sweden forward Filip Forsberg said. "Whoever they [start] is going to be good. Defensively structured team. A lot of them play together for a lot of the year too, so there will be good chemistry. Big challenge, for sure."

In the preliminary round, the Latvians lost to Team USA 5-1 and Team Denmark 4-2, but defeated Team Germany 4-3. That German group has NHL stars like Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl and Ottawa Senators center Tim Stutzle. Seattle Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer was in net.

The Swedes better be ready to battle the Latvians.

"They grind," Sweden defenseman Rasmus Dahlin said. "They make it hard for the other team, and then they've got some skill too. It won't be easy. We're going to have to really bring our 'A' game, that's for sure."

Sweden defenseman Victor Hedman said: "They're physical. They play with their hearts. You look on paper, we're probably favorites to win the game, but at the end of the day, it's the best team that wins. We've got to go out there and be the best team. We know that our individual skill can take over a game, but at the same time, we can't take it easy on certain things. … I'm sure we're going to be ready to go."

The Swedes had an odd preliminary round.

They are one of three teams in the tournament full of NHL players, with Team Canada and Team USA. But against Team Italy, the only team in the field with no NHL players, they fell behind 1-0 in the first period and were tied 2-2 in the second before winning 5-2.

Against Team Finland, their biggest rival, they lost 4-1.

Against Team Slovakia, they were tied 2-2 in the second. They led 5-2 in the third, but Raymond took a slashing penalty, they gave up a power-play goal with 39 seconds left and that was costly. They finished with two regulation wins and one regulation loss, but ended up third in Group B and with the seventh seed because of goal differential.

That led to their difficult path now.

"That's just how the tournament goes," Forsberg said. "You're going to have to beat everyone at some point, and obviously we start with Latvia hopefully."

Hallam looks at it like this: The Swedes have been tested. They've played well much of the time, but they've stumbled in fragments of games. This is a team loaded with talent capable of going through the gauntlet and coming out the other side with a medal.

"My job now," he said, "is just preparing the team and making everybody understand and remember how good we are, how many good minutes we have out there and go out there and do that tomorrow."