BEIJING (Reuters) -Denmark made a spectacular Olympic debut by shocking the Czech Republic 2-1 in men’s ice hockey on Wednesday, as the Beijing Winter Games competition got off to an enthralling start.
Markus Lauridsen and Frans Nielsen each had a goal and Sebastian Dahm made 39 saves as the men completed an Olympic Danish double following the path blazed by the women, who also made their Games debut in Beijing and beat the Czechs to land a first win in the competition.
Making it even more of a family affair, the Danish teams feature four sets of brothers and sisters.
“(It’s) a good win for us and a great start for us in our first ever Olympics,” said Danish forward Mikkel Boedker. “Obviously we’re a real small country that doesn’t have that many participants in hockey, but both women and men are here and both teams have beaten Czech Republic in their Olympics and that’s pretty cool.”
It was a day of edge-of-your-seat action at the National Indoor Arena as defending gold medal winners the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) escaped with 1-0 win over Switzerland.
The ROC and Czech Republic arrived in Beijing tipped as medal contenders. Opening day action underscored just how unpredictable the Games could be without National Hockey League players.
Before North America’s NHL pulled out of the Beijing Games due to a COVID-19 surge that created havoc with its schedule, there had been clear medal favourites with Canada and the United States topping the list.
But when play got underway on Wednesday, the podium spots were considered up for grabs.
Denmark came out flying, scoring twice in the opening period with Lauridsen notching the country’s first Olympic goal and Nielsen adding the eventual game winner on a penalty shot.
Roman Cervenka would get the Czechs on the scoreboard in the second, but a heroic Dahm would not be beaten again.
The ROC also needed a spectacular effort from their netminder to snatch a nervy victory.
The Swiss outshot the ROC 33-30 but could not put a puck past netminder Ivan Fedotov. Anton Slepyshev’s goal with 2.7 seconds left in the opening period was enough to secure victory.
“We understood it would be a hard game,” said Fedotov. “After today we will be stronger, better and we keep going our way.”
If the 2018 Pyeongchang Games proved anything, it is that without NHL players the competition is difficult to handicap.
The NHL sat out the 2018 Games when team owners decided not to shut down their season for an Olympic break.
Germany arrived in South Korea as rank outsiders and won just a single game in group play, but then knocked out traditional powers Sweden in the quarter-finals and Canada in the semis.
They narrowly missed skating home with gold after losing to the ROC in overtime in the final.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Beijing, additional reporting by Amy Tennery; Editing by Ed Osmond, Andrew Cawthorne and Bill Berkrot)
