{"id":489288,"date":"2026-02-19T03:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489288\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:47:07","slug":"quinn-hughes-steps-up-in-ot-powers-united-states-to-olympic-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489288\/","title":{"rendered":"Quinn Hughes steps up in OT, powers United States to Olympic semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hughes carried the puck into the Sweden zone, skated along the left-wing boards and assessed his options. He passed the puck back to the left point to Boldy, his Wild teammate, then skated toward him.<\/p>\n<p>Boldy knew what to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGet it to Quinn,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cThat\u2019s usually the game plan when he\u2019s out there. He\u2019s so talented, not only to create shots but to create lanes and chances. I think the biggest thing is, he wants the puck. He wants to have it and make a difference, and I think that\u2019s what makes him so great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hughes took the puck and skated into the high slot. A left-handed shot, he put the puck on his forehand, created a shooting lane and fired just past the outstretched stick of Sweden captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/gabriel-landeskog-8476455\" title=\"Gabriel Landeskog\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gabriel Landeskog<\/a> and glove of Markstrom. The puck clanked off the right post and in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat was one of the best feelings I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/brady-tkachuk-8480801\" title=\"Brady Tkachuk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, a teammate and close friend. \u201cI guess just the relief of scoring that goal but seeing it was him. I think it just shows why he\u2019s one of the best defensemen in the NHL.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hughes played 27:31, by far the most on Team USA. No surprise. He leads NHL skaters in average ice time this season at 27:52. He has six points (one goal, five assists) in four games in the tournament, tied for the team lead with captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/player\/auston-matthews-8479318\" title=\"Auston Matthews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Auston Matthews<\/a> (three goals, three assists).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGlad he\u2019s on our team,\u201d Boldy said. \u201cHe\u2019s an absolute animal, the guy you want to have the puck, and he stepped up big.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And he\u2019s not done yet. Next: The Slovaks in the semis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an extremely, extremely hard test,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cI mean, they\u2019ve been rolling. They\u2019re competitive. They\u2019re fast. It doesn\u2019t matter how many superstars you have or whatnot. It\u2019s just, the desperation level\u2019s so high. It\u2019s Game 7 every night now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, we\u2019ll have to be ready, but I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll get our feet up for the next day and then be ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hughes carried the puck into the Sweden zone, skated along the left-wing boards and assessed his options. He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-489288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}