Men's Olympic Recap: Sweden 2, Canada 0

Matt Tomkins made 24 saves but Canada couldn’t find the back of the net, falling to Sweden to end its run.

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BEIJING, China – Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team has been eliminated from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games after falling to Sweden 2-0 in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

• Matt Tomkins (Sherwood Park, Alta./ Frölunda HC, SHL) made 24 saves.
• Mark Barberio (Montréal/Ak Bars Kazan, KHL) led all Canadian skaters with five shots on goal. Maxim Noreau (Montréal/ZSC Lions, NL) and Adam Tambellini (Edmonton, Alta./ Rögle BK, SHL) had three shots apiece.
• Owen Power (Mississauga, Ont./University of Michigan, Big Ten) led all skaters in ice-time with 24:54.
Sweden outshot Canada 26-22.

Quotes:

“There was a lot of adversity, but every team had to go through that. At the end of the day, our group was pretty resilient. They never got rattled or frustrated, they just rolled with the punches. We came [to Beijing] with a great group of players that combined youth and veterans, and everyone seemed to come together so quickly. As a coach, I just wish our team would have been rewarded with something better than what we are left with.”
- Head coach Claude Julien (Orleans, Ont.) on being eliminated

“Consistency is always one of those things that you strive for in a tournament like this. We had some moments in all our games that were better than others, and maybe at times we didn’t have the amount of consistency that we would have liked. Our team competed hard and there were a lot of moments where we were really solid. Tonight was just one of those games where we knew that one or two plays could make the difference, and we had chances that we came close to capitalizing on. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way.”
- Captain Eric Staal (Thunder Bay, Ont./Iowa, AHL) on finding consistency

“When you have a chance to play together more often, you get familiar with your teammates, you know who you are going to play with and who is going to be on the power play. We know how hard it is to come together quickly and find success, especially at a tournament like this. Our guys did a really good job, and we became such a tight-knit group over a short period of time. We had a great group with veteran leadership and young talent, but we just needed to get inside [Sweden’s] defenders more and create some more traffic around the net.”
- Noreau on establishing chemistry

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