MILAN — Mika Zibanejad scored what might have been the goal of his life Wednesday night.
Barely 10 minutes later, he was trudging off the bench at Santagiulia Arena for the last time.
At 32 years old, there is every chance his Olympic career is over before it ever began.
Zibanejad, as much as anyone, was robbed of the chance to represent his country in 2018 and 2022.
In 2026, his final stats read as three goals and three assists across five games for the Swedes, with the last goal a fleeting, bittersweet game-tying blast from his left-circle office at 6-on-5.
It tied the game against the United States on Wednesday night, a do-or-die quarterfinal the Americans had led since Dylan Larkin scored 11:03 into the second period.
It stayed tied for just under five minutes before Quinn Hughes rendered Zibanejad’s goal — what might have been his most heroic moment playing for his country since his golden goal in overtime of the 2012 World Junior Championships against Russia — a mere answer to a trivia question.
“Just empty,” Zibanejad said. “I thought we pushed. We pushed through the whole third and obviously get the tying goal. Get ourselves to overtime. To see the puck go in for them and you know it’s over, it’s tough.”
Zibanejad and his teammates will have to board planes Thursday back to the States to rejoin their teams for practices before the NHL resumes next week far earlier than any of them intended.
That is largely a product of Sweden’s underperformance in the group stage, when a loss against Finland and failures to keep the goal differential high against Italy and Slovakia meant they entered the knockout round as the No. 7 seed, with a matchup against Team USA slated far earlier than anyone anticipated.
2026 WINTER OLYMPICS
Still, this was a bitter disappointment for a nation that expected to be in gold medal contention and now won’t even get to play for any medal at all.
“Personally it’s really hard to find words,” Sweden coach Sam Hallam said, seemingly on the verge of tears. “The expectation coming to the Olympics, the buildup, all the preparations, all the emotions to it, the pride. You want to make the best out of it. Especially, you want to make your country proud.”
Mike Sullivan, Zibanejad’s coach with the Rangers and Team USA’s coach at these Olympics, ran into him in the mixed zone Wednesday night.
“Mika’s a special player,” Sullivan said. “I just saw him in the hallway. I know how disappointed he is. And that [was] a goal-scorer’s goal.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
