Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes has his name etched in Olympic lore along with Mike Eurizione, Jim Craig, Ray LeBlanc, and T.J. Oshie as he scored the overtime, game-winning goal that sent Team USA into the semifinal round with a victory over Sweden. Hughes’ first Olympic goal came at the 3:27 mark of overtime to give the Americans the 2-1 win.
Hughes, who also assisted on Dylan Larkin’s game-opening goal, took a pass from Minnesota teammate Matt Boldy and drifted to the center of the ice. A sharp cutback opened up a shooting lane and he snapped a forehand wrister past the glove of Jacob Markstrom and just off the inside of the post to shock the Swedes. Markstrom stayed down on a knee in the crease as the Americans celebrated the goal.
It was a tight checking game for most of the night with neither team allowing much room on the ice all night long. The Swedes were shorthanded as defenseman Victor Hedman was out with a lower-body injury suffered in pre-game warm-ups. Forward Jesper Bratt was also dealing with an injury and was limited to just over six minutes of ice time.
Still, they managed to tie things up at the death when Mika Zibanejad beat Connor Hellebuyck with 90 seconds left on the clock. That set the stage for Quinn’s heroics in a game that featured four Minnesota Wild skaters on the ice in Hughes, Boldy, Brock Faber, and Joel Eriksson Ek.
As is his way, Hughes was his usual understated self after the game, telling reporters,
“Just created some space for myself, got it to my forehand where I wanted and got a shot off.”
He’s been one of the best players for Team USA, posting 6 points (1 goal, 5 assists) which ties him atop the points column with Auston Matthews. He’s also been one of the most memed hockey players at the Olympics as the lore of Haunted Quinn Hughes has gone international.
The Americans are back on the ice on Friday to take on Slovakia with a trip to the gold medal game on the line. On the other side of the bracket will be Canada and Finland as both teams also won their quarterfinal games in overtime. Mitch Marner was the hero for the Canadiens while Artturi Lehkonen propelled the Finns past Switzerland.