Men’s Olympic Hockey Opening Day

Photo Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

After an intense win by Canada’s women’s hockey team over Team USA early this morning, the men took their place on the ice for their opening day.

Although I wasn’t able to watch, Team Switzerland won over Team Latvia today by a score of 1-0 when Simon Moser scored the only goal of the game with less than one minute left in the third period. Reto Berra, the Flames shootout king, didn’t get his chance as backup goalie to Jonas Hiller because Hiller was on his game, making 21 saves for a shutout. Team Switzerland’s next game is Friday, February 14th when they take on Team Sweden.

Team Sweden took their first win against the Czech Republic today with a final score of 4-2. The first period was all Sweden as the shots on net were relentless. Jakub Kovar started in net for the Czechs but was pulled and replaced by Alexander Salak after Henrik Zetterberg scored less than a minute into the second period to put Team Sweden up by three goals. Marek Zidlicky and Jaromir Jagr scored the two goals for the Czech Republic but they couldn’t seem to keep the momentum going for the rest of the game. Flames dependable defenseman, Ladislav Smid, was not given any ice time for the Czechs in today’s game. The Czech Republic’s next game is Friday, February 14th as well when they play against Latvia.

Team USA and Team Canada start their Olympic runs tomorrow.

Team USA will take on Slovakia at 7:30am eastern time. According to NHL.com, Jonathan Quick will start in net for the USA tomorrow.

Team Canada takes on Team Norway at noon eastern time. As reported by canada.com, Carey Price is slated to start for Team Canada tomorrow against Norway and Roberto Luongo will get the nod in net when the team plays against Austria on Friday, February 14th.

Go Team Canada!