Gudas and Dostal's Czechia marches on. Clara's Italy, though eliminated, fought valiantly, with the young goalie shining.
We’ve reached the “knockout” stage of the 2026 Winter Olympic Men’s hockey tournament. The Anaheim Ducks organization featured three players in action on Tuesday, with the threat of elimination looming.
Damian Clara backstopped the host nation Italy, with the team as the tournament darlings, and Clara as one of the breakout storylines. Italy faced off against Switzerland in Tuesday’s qualification matchup, one of the tournament’s more cohesive teams in terms of their on-ice brand.
Radko Gudas, Lukas Dostal, and their Czech squad were somewhat disappointing in the preliminary games. Still, they earned a qualification matchup against long-shot Denmark for a chance to face the mighty Canadian squad in the quarterfinals.
Damian Clara (Italy vs. Switzerland)
Italy: 0, Switzerland: 3
In their first two games of the tournament, Italy had proved a tough out for some of the tournament powerhouses, Sweden and Slovakia, before they suffered a sizable defeat in their third game against Finland. They were looking to respond with a gutty defensive performance against Switzerland, surprisingly one of the fastest and most skilled teams during these Olympics.
Switzerland took advantage of their natural talent and NHL experience, specifically manufacturing turnovers between their blueline and the tops of the circles, to capitalize on mistakes and turn them into countless odd-man rushes heading Clara’s way.
Though he was fighting the puck early, having a tough time recovering and finding rebounds after making the initial save, Clara battled back and delivered his best performance of the tournament, keeping Italy alive and within striking distance throughout. Two of his goals against came against the Swiss power play, and one came off a tip play that he got the initial save on, but the rebound found its way to Kurashev’s stick on the back post. There likely isn’t a goal against him that he “would have wanted back.”
He performed at his best when pucks were in tight and threatening his crease. His lateral movement and flexability virtually eliminated the bottom foot of the net, even when plays broke down, and passes came across his crease. When the bottom portion of the net wasn’t available, he eliminated much of the upper portion of the net, cutting down on angles purely due to his size.
As mentioned, he faced numerous 3v1s, 3v2s, 2v1s, and breakaways, standing tall and meeting the challenge each time. He has gotten into trouble in the past attempting to play pucks behind the net or in the defensive zone. He limited the opportunity for those miscues, and he stayed in his crease for all but one of those potential plays.
He stopped 48 of a whopping 51 shots and was a breakout performer in these Olympics for the host nation. He finished the tournament with three starts, four appearances, a 0-4-0 record, allowed 13 goals on 146 shots, and a .911 SV%.
Radko Gudas (Czechia vs. Denmark)
Czechia: 3, Denmark: 2
Czechia dictated possession in this game for the first 50 minutes, but still held just a 3-2 lead as Denmark made a late push. Czechia did well to keep most shots and shot attempts from Denmark to the perimeter and protected the low slot.
This was likely Gudas’ shakiest game of the tournament, aside from the preliminary game against Canada. He made simple plays with the puck on his stick, but his processing time has been a touch slower in the Olympics than what spectators have become accustomed to seeing from him in the NHL this season.
He made a few mistakes to varying degrees, with two minor ones proving costly on the scoreboard. On Denmark’s first goal, he made an appropriate pinch in the offensive zone, with a high F3, but simply got beat back to his zone on the ensuing rush by the eventual goalscorer. On Denmark’s second, he was baited into drifting a bit too high on the penalty kill, which allowed the goal line forward too much time to pull a puck to the inside and beat Dostal in tight.
He finished the game scoreless with two shots on goal and two penalty minutes in 16:16 TOI.
Lukas Dostal (Czechia vs. Denmark)
Czechia: 3, Denmark: 2
Dostal got his third start in four games for Czechia and will likely get the nod again for the quarterfinal game against Canada tomorrow. As mentioned, many of the shots he saw came late and from the perimeter, but in Dostal fashion, he played well enough between the pipes to give his team a chance to win.
He made one or two special saves, but his standout trait in this one was absorbing those outside shots or deflecting rebounds to the glass or netting. He aided his defensemen and backchecking forwards greatly with his ability to knock down dump-ins and spark breakouts, limiting the amount of time the puck was in his defensive zone.
Dostal wound up stopping 24 of the 26 shots he faced in this game.
All four Ducks roster players (Gudas, Dostal, Mikael Granlund, Jackson LaCombe) will see their teams compete in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, but only three will likely see the ice, as the US’s LaCombe has been a healthy scratch for the team’s entire preliminary round and projects to be scratched again for the quarters.