U.S. avoids major Olympic hockey upset with late surge vs. Czech Republic

| February 11, 2022, 1:27 AM

February 11, 2022, 1:27 AM

The United States women’s hockey team survived a big scare on Friday at the Beijing Olympics.

Onto the semis!#TeamUSA | #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/6IXS0QoSh6

— USA Hockey (@usahockey) February 11, 2022

The reigning Olympic champs broke a 1-1 tie 6:49 into the third period and held on to beat the Czech Republic 4-1 in the first quarterfinal of the tournament.

The Americans outshot the Czech Republic — playing in the Olympic tournament for the first time — by a whopping 59-6 margin, but Czech goaltender Klara Peslarova kept her team in the game.

“I think there was a lot of relief, but more so than relief I felt like it was a reward for the effort we were putting in the entire game and the adjustments we continued to make in our pursuit of scoring goals,’” U.S. coach Joel Johnson said. “It never felt safe until maybe the empty-net goal. I don’t know if it was relief as much as it was us trusting our process. We kept going. We had to believe that it was eventually going to go in and it did.”

The Czech Republic became the sixth women’s hockey team, and first since Italy at the 2006 Turin Games, to fail to register a shot on net in a period at the Olympics during the first period.

But while the Americans outshot the Czechs 18-0 in the first, the game was tied at 0-0 thanks in large part to Peslarova.

The Czechs went up 1-0 at 4:59 of the second period on a goal by Michaela Pejzlova, but Hilary Knight tied it 48 seconds later.

Lee Stecklein put the Americans ahead when her point shot deflected off a Czech defender past Peslarova.

Savannah Harmon added an insurance goal before Kendall Coyne Schofield scored into an empty net.

The Americans have been on the podium in every Olympic tournament since women’s hockey joined the Winter Games in 1998.

Canada faces Sweden in the second quarterfinal on Friday at 8:10 a.m. ET.

— With files from The Associated Press