Quinn Hughes’ dominance was key to Team USA’s quarterfinal victor

Team USA was pushed to the brink on Wednesday at the Winter Olympics in its quarterfinal game against Team Sweden, but number one defenseman Quinn Hughes came through with an overtime winner to send the Americans to the semifinals.

Hughes’ heroics came after the Swedes found a late tying goal after the Americans held tightly to a 1-0 lead since the second period when Dylan Larkin got the scoring started on a redirection.

In the overtime period, Hughes scarcely left the ice. He gave way to Zach Werenski for a shift after his first go, but from then on, Hughes largely served as the team’s defenseman in the 3-on-3.

On Wednesday’s Daily Faceoff post-game show, Jonny Lazarus and former NHL video coach Steve Peters discussed why Hughes’ willingness to shoulder the load and ability to produce offense when it mattered the most makes him so instrumental to the Americans.

Steve Peters: “Even the top two lines, it was the defense. And for me, it was the defensemen’s ability to get the puck to the net… goal one comes from the blue line and goal two comes from a defenseman. I thought the defense for Team USA were very good at helping to generate offense for this team, and I know over the next two games that’s going to be a big key is who can get their defense involved quicker offensively. And I think I agree with you, when you look at the Slovakian team and the American team matchup, this is a matchup that’s really good for Team USA. And again, it’ll be their defense, that I think leads the way.”

Jonny Lazarus: “I couldn’t agree more with that comment about the offense coming from the defense. Quinn Hughes obviously led the way with the overtime winning goal, but Hughes and Werenski got a lot of shifts together. It felt like Quinn Hughes was out there the entire first six minutes of the game, because the U.S. got that power play, he saw some action with Zach Werenski, but Quinn Hughes is our player of the game. Quinn Hughes with the goal and assist, 27:31 minutes of ice, two points and the extra note here, four shots on goal. And the USA men had not beaten Sweden in the Olympics since February of 1960, so we can put that little stat to rest.”

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the postgame show here…