MILAN — The United States men’s hockey team is marching on.

International hockey rules did their thing and awarded Team USA the toughest route to the gold medal game at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, but the Americans cleared their first hurdle with a 2-1 overtime win over Sweden on Wednesday night at Santagiulia Arena.

Thanks to a clutch game-winning goal from Quinn Hughes, who missed out on the 4 Nations Face-Off due to injury, the U.S. booked a semifinal meeting with Slovakia on Friday.

Canada, which beat Czechia in overtime earlier in the day, will face Finland.

“That’s unreal. That’s a massive goal, massive moment,” said Quinn’s brother, Jack Hughes. “One of our best players taking over there and winning that game for us.”

This was bound to be one of the toughest quarterfinal games of the day, but three of the four contests went to overtime. Still, the Sweden-USA matchup featured the most NHLers on the ice and only happened because the tiebreaker rules swung in Slovakia’s favor.

Mika Zibanejad gave Tre Kronor a chance with just over 1 ½ minutes left in regulation, when the Rangers center blasted a one-timer from his office in the faceoff circle to make it a 1-1 game.

Letting out an emphatic yell, Zibanejad kept his team alive for the 3-on-3 battle.

Just under 3 ½ minutes into the extra period, however, Hughes scored his first goal of the tournament.

“We did address overtime at the start of this tournament, because we felt at some point it was going to play a role,” head coach Mike Sullivan said of his team’s first OT experience. “As a coaching staff, we prepared for that. We had a video session on it. It’s hard with the limited practice that we have in the condensed schedule, the amount of games in a short period of time.

“It’s hard to maybe have an opportunity to actually give them reps in practice, but we dedicated a meeting on overtime, 3-on-3, on both sides of the puck, so that we could have some predictability around it.”

Team Sweden was short-handed before the puck even dropped, after Victor Hedman suffered a lower-body injury during warmups. While Hedman was still dressed and on the bench, Sweden coach Sam Hallam said the big-bodied blueliner wouldn’t play and would be reevaluated after the game.

Asked if he considered dressing Rasmus Andersson, Hallam said they were 10 minutes away from puck drop and they had to make a decision.

Hedman is a key piece of Sweden’s lineup, but Tre Kronor struggled to connect offensively before Zibanejad got them on the board.

After a tight and scoreless opening 20 minutes, the Americans struck first just over halfway through the middle frame. Dylan Larkin scored his first goal of the tournament, perfectly redirecting a pinballing Jack Hughes’ shot for the 1-0 lead.

Team USA was galvanized and poured on the shots toward the end of the second.

Chants of “USA! USA! USA!” reverberated around the lower bowl as the second half of the third period wound down.

“That’s as nervous as I’ve been ever in a hockey game, I could say,” Larkin said. “Just the way 3-on-3 goes, it’s really just being opportunistic. Someone could fall, puck could bounce, anything could happen — especially with the ice out there. Calmed down a lot when I saw Quinnie get it for the first time. Was like, ‘We got that guy.’”