“I don’t have any words for this,” Nikolaj Ehlers said after the game, almost in disbelief. “To beat Canada at home and go through is one of the biggest things I’ve done in my career, so it’s amazing.”

Ehlers is the only active NHL player on this Danish team. In fact, he was playing for the Winnipeg Jets last Sunday. That loss to the Dallas Stars was disappointing, but opportunities to play in the World Championship on home ice don’t come long often so he didn’t hesitate.

He flew overseas and joined the team in time for Denmark’s last group-stage game on Tuesday against Germany – a shootout win which got the team into the quarterfinals. The Danes knew they were huge underdogs against Canada but had a clear plan for the game, and executed it nearly to perfection.

“We knew from the beginning that they were going to have a lot of pressure on our net, so we just tried to play on the inside and minimize their chances, and I thought our goalie (Frederik) Dichow was great today,” said Ehlers. “Then we managed somehow to score two goals at the end.”

It was Ehlers who scored the equalizer – a flick of the wrist from the point that went through a screen and goaltender Jordan Binnington with 2:17 to play. But that wasn’t all. With under a minute to go, Nicklas Jensen found Nick Olesen alone in front of the net, and he put the puck up and over a fallen Binnington for the game-winner.

“Unbelievable,” said Ehlers. “I was almost crying on the ice, being at home in front of the Danish fans, hearing the Danish national anthem, it was great.”

For the first time ever, Denmark is in the World Championship semifinals so, as much as they’d like to, the players can’t celebrate this win too much. They’ve got a flight to Stockholm in the morning and a game against Switzerland on Saturday afternoon. Switzerland beat Denmark 5-2 in the group stage, but that was before Ehlers joined the team.

“I mean, we just beat Canada, so I guess we have to prepare for that game now,” he figures. “We’ll celebrate for an hour or two and then get ready for the next game.”

Photo © Bob Frid-Imagn Images

‘Disappointed’ Sidney Crosby: ‘We Couldn’t Get It Done Here Tonight’ When <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/international/latest-news/canada-ready-to-start-worlds-with-all-nhl-lineup">Sidney Crosby said he’d play for Canada, followed by Nathan MacKinnon, Marc-André Fleury and others</a>, it was supposed to be 2015 all over again … or, at the very least, the team was supposed to be playing for a medal this weekend. Instead, Crosby was left trying to figure out what happened at the end of Thursday’s 2-1 quarterfinal loss to Denmark.