The 2026 Winter Olympic Games almost saw another upset in the men’s ice hockey tournament.
Team Denmark put a brief scare into the United States, taking a 2-1 lead into the first intermission. After Denmark’s Nick Olsen and the United States’ Matt Boldy traded goals, Nicholas B. Jensen scored one of the most insane tallies of the tournament thus far.
The Danish defenseman beat U.S. goaltender Jeremy Swayman from just inside the red line, finding the top corner of the net short side and giving the Danes the lead with 8:44 remaining in the period.
While the CBC panel believed Swayman lost sight of the puck due to the dark green-colored sideboards, the Boston Bruins goaltender explained that the reason was something else.
“No [I didn’t see it], it was a flash screen,” Swayman said per the New York Post’s Mollie Walker. “It was just the perfect height, right between that stands and board level. I truly lost it… No matter how they go in, you have to step up and stop the next one.”
When pressed on whether the boards had any impact, Swayman was emphatic that they did not.
“I’m colorblind, so it doesn’t matter to me,” he said.
The goal was Jensen’s first career Olympic goal. He also played for Denmark in the 2022 Olympics, posting two assists in five games.
Jensen is one of two Nick Jensens on the Danish team, with no relation to current Ottawa Senators and former Washington Capitals rearguard Nick Jensen. When not suiting up for the Danes, Nicholas B. Jensen plays for the Fischtown Pinguins of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
Despite Jensen’s fluke goal, the Danes could not hang on to win. Brady Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, and Noah Hanfin opened the second period by scoring three consecutive goals. With three seconds to go in the stanza, Denmark’s Phillip Bruggisser scored a buzzer-beater to narrow the USA’s lead to 4-3. But that was as close as Denmark would get as Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes scored for the United States in the third period, to give them a 6-3 victory.
The victory was Team USA’s eighth straight round robin win in the Olympics with NHL participation dating back to Feb. 16, 2010. Per NHL PR, it is the second-longest run by any nation behind only Team Finland (9 GP from Feb. 16, 2002 – Feb. 19, 2010).
