Team USA is through to the semifinal after an 2-1 OT win over. Sweden. The Americans’ hero was Quinn Hughes who scored the game-winner at 3:27. In the semifinal, Team USA will meet Slovakia.

"I created some space for myself, took it to my forehand where I wanted it and got a shot off," Quinn Hughes said.  "ı[I felt] just relief. I have been enjoying wearing the crest and playing with the superstars that we have on our team, getting to know these guys in the (Olympic) Village, and all of it. I just wanted to extend it as long as I can," he said.

“It was basically a perfect shot. I’m not sure if it hit my stick or if I took his eyes away, but it was still a great shot, a perfect hot and that's what it took to beat Markstrom today,” said Sweden’s captain Landeskog. 

Dylan Larkin also scored for the Americans, and Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves. Sweden’s Jacob Markstrom made 38 saves.

Sweden's Mika Zibanejad tied the game with 91 seconds remaining with a slapshot from the left circle,sending the  low-scoring, tight game in which the biggest stars were the goaltenders, to overtime. Lucas Raymond and Gabriel Landeskog picked up assists.

"You have to pick yourself back up. I have been saying all along that we have guys who have won cups and gone deep in the play-offs, and are superstars in the league. It is a resilient group with a lot of experience, so you just pick yourself back up and get ready to go, and I think we had an attack mindset in overtime," Quinn Hughes commented.

The Swedes were naturally disappointed.

"I think we gave ourselves a chance to win, we’re right there all the way to the end, but, obviously, it's too bad that we came up short. I think we deserved more but it wasn’t our day,” said Erik Karlsson.

With Victor Hedman suffering an injury during warmup, coach Sam Hallam leaned heavily on Karlsson who logged more than 27 minutes of ice time.

The quarterfinal game is the most grueling one because even a win is simply a relief. A loss spells disaster, no matter how well a team has played up until then. No wonder, then, that a quarterfinal can take some time to get going after the initial feeling-out phase.

It was the first time the U.S. and Sweden met in an Olympic playoff game. For Sweden, the Olympic quarterfinal has been an almost insurmountable obstacle in the “NHL era,” as they have won only two of five quarterfinals – in 2006 and 2014. They advanced to the final both times, winning gold in 2006 and silver in 2014.

In the late-night quarterfinal between Sweden and the U.S in Milan., the feeling-out phase lasted twenty minutes. However, the U.S. was the more active team and created the most dangerous chances, even though the shots were tied at eight. Sweden’s defense managed to stifle the American offensive stars.

The first half of the middle frame belonged to Sweden. Lucas Raymond had two great chances to put Sweden on the board, but Hellebuyck denied him both times – first at the five-minute mark, when Hellebuyck stretched out his left leg and got enough of his pad on Raymond’s shot, and then on the next shift, when Raymond’s wrister hit the U.S. goalie’s glove.

"Hellebuyck wants to be in the net, he wants to make a difference. He wants shots and he wants to make saves. So when you have a guy like that back there, it kind of stems confidence," said Team USA's Matt Boldy. 

At the other end of the rink, Markstrom was just as impressive – but busier – than his U.S. counterpart. Team USA outshot Sweden 30–19 through two periods, and Markstrom made several high-quality saves.

"Markstrom was unbelievable for us, he kept us in the game when we need it the most. I thought we had enough chances to score more than one goal,” said Karlsson. 
 
With 8:57 remaining, however, the Americans broke the deadlock. Dylan Larkin won the offensive-zone draw and played the puck to the blue line Quinn Hughes who sent it to Jack Hughes. Larkin was in front of the net to tip in Jack Hughes's point shot and make it 1–0.

The game stayed alive for another five minutes after Zibanejad’s tying goal before Hughes fired a perfect shot to win it for the U.S. With that, he also kept the U.S. in the hunt for its first Olympic gold since 1980 – the “Miracle on Ice.”

"It's so fun, so you want to just keep playing. And that's one of our best players just taking over. That's just Quinn making a big dog move," said Jack Hughes, the hero's brother.