One of the four skater representatives on the Vancouver Canucks at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics has finally lit the lamp. None other than Elias Pettersson.

Pettersson and his fellow Swedes walked into Saturday morning’s match against Slovakia with a lot to play for. After losing 4-1 to arch-rivals Finland, Sweden needed a big result if they hoped to win their group. And the Swedes showed up early.

Minnesota Wild centre Joel Eriksson Ek got Sweden on the board first, but Olympic standout Juraj Slafkovsky answered less than two minutes later. The game remained tied at one until Adrian Kempe unleashed a howitzer on the power play early in the second.

Now with a 2-1 advantage, Toronto Maple Leaf forward William Nylander was booked for a high-sticking infraction. On the ensuing penalty kill, Pettersson blocked a Peter Ceresnak point shot, but the puck deflected perfectly to Martin Gerat, who fired the puck behind Jacob Markstrom to tie the game.

Although not his fault, Pettersson put it on himself to get the lead back for his country. And that he did.

Five minutes after the Slovaks tied the game, the Swedes head up ice on the breakout. Victor Hedman makes the outlet pass to a streaming Filip Forsberg. Now heading into the offensive zone, Pettersson speeds past his man and accepts the saucer pass from Forsberg. While heading to the net, Pettersson stick handles, picks his spot and beats Sam Hlavaj five-hole to give his country back the lead.

The emotion of scoring his first Olympic goal was evident in his celebration. But he would get to celebrate one more time.

Lucas Raymond wheels the puck behind the net, and Pettersson gets lost in the coverage as the Slovaks are puck watching Raymond. The Detroit Red Wing finds a lane and fires a pass to Pettersson at the net front, who rips a one-timer behind Hlavaj for his second of the game. This goal stood as the game-winner.

These Olympics hadn’t been the kindest to Pettersson. After a strong outing with multiple chances against the Italians on opening night, Pettersson saw his ice time decline to just over 10 minutes against the Finns. During those games, Pettersson centred a line between Mika Zibanejad and Rickard Rakell.

Head Coach Sam Hallam realized his offence needed a spark, and he tinkered with his lineup. This gave Pettersson two new linemates: Filip Forsberg and Marcus Johansson. The trio clearly worked better for Pettersson, as he scored on both of his shots on goal and finished with a plus-one rating.

Despite the victory, the Swedes’ fate will be in the hands of the rival Finns. With a Finnish regulation win over Italy, Sweden would fall to third in Group B. But any other result would give Sweden the top seed in Group B. However, at the time of this writing, Finland leads 3-0 after the first period.

Today was Elias Pettersson’s best outing donning the Tre Kronor. Had it not been for him, the outcome could have been different. But now, he and the rest of his Swedish teammates have all the confidence in the world after that big win heading into the Qualifying Round.

You can watch both of Pettersson’s goals (5:48 and 6:29) here: