Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak and usual teammate Brandon Hagel each helped their respective countries to victories during Friday\u2019s episode of preliminary Olympic hockey.<\/p>\n
Cernak led Slovakia in time on ice during a 3-2 win over host country Italy, while Hagel helped Canada take down Switzerland and Lightning defenseman JJ Moser in the final game of the day.<\/p>\n
Despite outshooting international rival Finland, Sweden suffered its first loss on this year\u2019s Olympic calendar by a 4-1 score.<\/p>\n
FINLAND 4, SWEDEN 1<\/p>\n
Defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo gave Finland a 1-0 lead with his shot from the top of the left circle just under eight minutes into Friday\u2019s first game, and his team never trailed in a 4-1 win over Sweden.<\/p>\n
Anton Lundell made it 2-0 when the puck hit his stick in the crease, cleared Swedish goalie Filip Gustavsson and found the net.<\/p>\n
A Rasmus Dahlin one-timer atop Sweden\u2019s power play halved the lead early in the second period, but Joel Armia made up for it with a shorthanded goal to make it 3-1 Finland in the middle frame. An empty-net goal closed the scoring.<\/p>\n
Lightning captain Victor Hedman played 14:36 in the loss for Sweden, and Bolt Pontus Holmberg had one shot on goal.<\/p>\n
Sweden and Finland are both now 1-0-0-1 in Group B.<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary
First period
FIN 1, SWE 0
7:44 Nikolas Matinpalo (1) – Kaapo Kakko, Olli Maatta<\/p>\n
FIN 2, SWE 0
15:26 Anton Lundell (1) – Eetu Luostarinen, Niko Mikkola<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: SWE 10, FIN 9<\/p>\n
Second period
FIN 2, SWE 1
4:39 Rasmus Dahlin (1) – William Nylander, Lucas Raymond – PP<\/p>\n
FIN 3, SWE 1
12:47 Joel Armia (1) – Erik Haula, Esa Lindell – SH<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: FIN 9, SWE 8<\/p>\n
Third period
FIN 4, SWE 1
19:25 Mikko Rantanen – Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz – EN<\/p>\n
Total shots: SWE 35, FIN 24<\/p>\n
TBL Player Summary<\/p>\n
Victor Hedman (SWE): 14:36 TOI, 2 PIM.<\/p>\n
Pontus Holmberg (SWE): 8:00 TOI, 1 SOG.<\/p>\n
SLOVAKIA 3, ITALY 2<\/p>\n
Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak and Slovakia are off to the best start in Group B with a 3-2 win over Italy on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Slovakia leads their group at 2-0-0-0 this tournament but had to hold on for the win against the host country in Italy.<\/p>\n
Slovakia grabbed a 2-0 lead with consecutive goals to start the second period\u2014Libor Hudacek snapped a scoreless game 3:51 into the middle frame when his power-play pass went in off a defender, and Matus Sukel doubled the advantage with 6:15 left.<\/p>\n
Italy got on the scoreboard with a power-play goal from Matthew Bradley late in the second period.<\/p>\n
Slovakia added some cushion to its lead with Adam Ruzicka\u2019s second goal in as many games, making it 3-1 with 8:06 to play. Italy cut its deficit to a single goal with 3:35 remaining on a tally from Dustin Gazley, but Slovakia held on for the win.<\/p>\n
Cernak led all players in the game for time on ice, playing 24:27 while sending one shot on goal.<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary
First period
None.<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: SVK 13, ITA 8<\/p>\n
Second period
SVK 1, ITA 0
3:51 Libor Hudacek (1) – Juraj Slafkovsky, Dalibor Dvorsky – PP<\/p>\n
SVK 2, ITA 0
13:45 Matus Sukel (1) – Adam Liska, Lukas Cingel<\/p>\n
SVK 2, ITA 1
17:06 Matthew Bradley (2) – Phil Pietroniro, Dustin Gazley – PP<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: SVK 13, ITA 3<\/p>\n
Third period
SVK 3, ITA 1
11:54 Adam Ruzicka (2) – Pavol Regenda, Martin Gernat<\/p>\n
SVK 3, ITA 2
16:25 Dustin Gazley (1) – Thomas Larkin, Pietroniro<\/p>\n
Total shots: SVK 38, ITA 22<\/p>\n
TBL Player Summary<\/p>\n
Erik Cernak (SVK): 24:27 TOI, 1 SOG, 2 PIM.<\/p>\n
CZECHIA 6, FRANCE 3<\/p>\n
The only game of the day that didn\u2019t feature any Lightning players saw plenty of offense.<\/p>\n
Czechia grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period, but France then stunned their opponent with three goals in the first six minutes of the second period\u2014including two from Louis Boudon\u2014to steal a 3-2 advantage.<\/p>\n
Czechia settled in from there, outscoring France 4-0 the rest of the game and finishing with a 38-12 advantage in shots on goal. Boudon led all players with a three-point night, and six different Czechia skaters finished with two.<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary
First period
CZE 1, FRA 0
5:56 Martin Necas (1) – David Pastrnak, Filip Hronek – PP<\/p>\n
CZE 2, FRA 0
13:04 Michal Kempny (1) – Matej Stransky, Radek Faksa<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: CZE 16, FRA 3<\/p>\n
Second period
CZE 2, FRA 1
1:01 Louis Boudon (1) – Stephane Da Costa, Yohann Auvitu – PP<\/p>\n
CZE 2, FRA 2
4:04 Boudon (2) – Charles Bertrand<\/p>\n
FRA 3, CZE 2
5:54 Hugo Gallet (1) – Bertrand, Boudon<\/p>\n
FRA 3, CZE 3
13:23 Pastrnak (1) – Ondrej Palat, Kempny<\/p>\n
CZE 4, FRA 3
19:28 Stransky (1) – Faksa, Hronek – SH<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: CZE 7, FRA 5<\/p>\n
Third period
CZE 5, FRA 3
1:05 Filip Chlapik (1) – Necas, David Kampf<\/p>\n
CZE 6, FRA 3
1:53 Roman Cervenka (1) – Lukas Sedlak, David Spacek<\/p>\n
Total shots: CZE 38, FRA 12<\/p>\n
CANADA 5, SWITZERLAND 1<\/p>\n
Canada remains unbeaten in Group A with Friday\u2019s win over Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Connor McDavid\u2019s first career Olympic goal gave Canada the 1-0 lead on an early man advantage, this one on a shot from the bottom of the right circle. Defenseman Thomas Harley doubled Canada\u2019s lead by jumping into the rush and scoring on his snap shot from the left half of the zone midway through the first.<\/p>\n
Switzerland forward Pius Suter was the player who ended Canada\u2019s shutout run at the Olympics, halving the score to 2-1 on a power-play rebound with 7:18 left in the first period.<\/p>\n
San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini then restored Canada\u2019s two-goal lead early in the second period on a one-timer following a pass from the goal line by Nathan MacKinnon. Sidney Crosby added to the scoring with a netfront redirection in the third, and MacKinnon closed the night with his second goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n
McDavid and MacKinnon each had three points for Canada, and goalie Logan Thompson made 24 saves. The Canadians are 2-0-0-0.<\/p>\n
Brandon Hagel played 16:24 for Canada, while Lightning defenseman JJ Moser saw 20:25 of ice time and registered one shot on goal for Switzerland.<\/p>\n
Scoring Summary
First period
CAN 1, SUI 0
5:45 Connor McDavid – Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar – PP<\/p>\n
CAN 2, SUI 1
10:54 Thomas Harley (1) – McDavid, Tom Wilson<\/p>\n
CAN 2, SUI 1
12:42 Pius Suter (1) – Sven Andrighetto, Dean Kukan – PP<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: CAN 13, SUI 10<\/p>\n
Second period
CAN 3, SUI 1
4:14 Macklin Celebrini (2) – MacKinnon<\/p>\n
Shots on goal: CAN 14, SUI 6<\/p>\n
Third period
CAN 4, SUI 1
7:28 Sidney Crosby (1) – Mitch Marner, Makar<\/p>\n
CAN 5, SUI 1
13:03 MacKinnon (2) – McDavid, Celebrini<\/p>\n
Total shots: CAN 39, SUI 25<\/p>\n
TBL Player Summary<\/p>\n
Brandon Hagel (CAN): 16:24 TOI.<\/p>\n
JJ Moser (SUI): SOG, 20:25 TOI.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s Next?<\/p>\n
Saturday features more Lightning preliminary matchups, beginning bright and early.<\/p>\n
Hedman and Holmberg will join their Swedish teammates in a clash with Cernak and Slovakia at 6 a.m. in a Group B matchup, while Latvia assistant captain Zemgus Girgensons faces Syracuse Crunch forward Wojciech Stachowiak and Germany in another game at 6 a.m. between Group C opponents.<\/p>\n
Finland and Italy will play at 10:30 a.m. in the day\u2019s lone game without a Bolts player before the action concludes with a 3 p.m. Group C showdown featuring Team USA and Jake Guentzel going head-to-head against Denmark and Lightning forward Oliver Bjorkstrand.<\/p>\n
Both Germany and Team USA are 1-0-0-0 entering Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak and usual teammate Brandon Hagel each helped their respective countries to victories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-154956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}