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The United States overcame a second straight sluggish start and a poor start from backup netminder Jeremy Swayman to move to 2-0-0 in the preliminary round of Olympic play, recording a 6-3 win over Denmark Saturday to set up a chance for the Americans to earn a bye and possibly the top seed Sunday with a win against Germany Sunday.
The Americans were slow out of the gate again, and ended up trailing after 20 minutes to the Danes who took advantage of a pair of fortunate bounces to lead 2-1 and able to sit back and dare the U.S. to break through. But a pair of faceoff wins by Jack Eichel in the Denmark end set up a Brady Tkachuk goal to tie it 9:26 into the second, and then Eichel himself scored after sidestepping Danish center Lars Eller less than a minute later.
The change in momentum by the goals halfway through regulation allowed the Americans to force the Danes to break out of the tight defensive game they had utilized with the lead, and despite the uneven performance, the U.S. still earned the chance to get a bye to the quarterfinals with a single point on Sunday.
Despite the six goals, Eichel was the only American with multiple points with a goal and an assist, but they proved to be a very important pair of points.
The U.S. also overcame a very sub-par performance from Swayman, who allowed three unfortunate goals in what is likely his lone Olympic performance, one accidentally kicked in by his own defender, followed by two coming from long-range. The Boston Bruins netminder likely was playing only this contest in relief of presumed top netminder Connor Hellebuyck; regardless of the outcome, didn’t exactly shut the door on the Danish attack, allowing 3 goals on 11 shots – two at long range – in his first 40 minutes of work.
Swayman did end up with 18 saves on the night in a game the Americans ended up dominating in shots 47-21.
Denmark, starting their backup netminder in Mads Sogaard of the Ottawa Senators, presumably to save top goalie Freddie Andersen for their preliminary finale against Lativa, was able to put a scare into the U.S., as they did last year in their 2025 World Championship upset of Canada.
But, ugly as it was, it was an important three points as the Americans really needed to roll through the preliminary round to give themselves an easier possible path to the podium.
For the second straight game, the United States had a rough first period, falling behind just 100 seconds in off a puck kicked in Zach Werenski’s skate past Swayman.
After a nice Matt Boldy wrap-around goal tied the game, the blue-clad Americans on the bench saw Swayman allow a goal shot from in front of them at the red line with 8:44 left in the first, and the goal seemed to sap some life out of the U.S., which faced its first deficit of the tournament after 20 minutes of play.
Armed with the lead to open the second, Denmark dared the U.S. to crash the net, and by and large, the Americans took shots from the perimeter and didn’t create a whole lot of chances for the first part of the second period.
Brady Tkachuk gave the U.S. some life near the halfway mark of the frame, beating his Senators teammate Sogaard with a shot off a faceoff win from Eichel. 57 seconds later, Eichel himself gave the Americans their first lead of the game, jumping in off another faceoff and beating Sogaard.
Like their win over Latvia, the Americans began to take control of the contest as the second progressed, and able to force the Danes to try and score the equalizer rather than defend the lead.
Noah Hanafin made the count 4-2 with a goal that just trickled over the goal line with 2:37 left in the frame, leaving the U.S. firmly in control of a game that seemed in doubt just before the halfway point. The goal became an important insurance marker as the adversity wasn’t quite over.
Denmark did enter the second intermission with a one-goal deficit, as a shot from the blue line eluded Swayman to cut the American lead to 4-3 late in the second.
Jake Guentzel converted on a long sequence of American pressure in which the Danes had all six skaters within a couple feet of their own net, restoring the two-goal lead with 12:36 left in regulation.
Frederik Dichow came in relief of an injured Sogaard late in the contest, and Jack Hughes banked a shot of the Swedish Elite League netminder for a 6-3 edge.
Hellebuyck, who backed up Swayman, likely was going to get the remainder of the tournament for the U.S. barring injury regardless of Saturday’s performance, and the Bruins net minder certainly didn’t do anything to undo that apparent plan. Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger has yet to dress in the first two U.S. contests.
Despite the uneven result, the three points picked up make the math simple for the United States to clinch a first-round bye Sunday.
With anything but a regulation loss against Germany, the U.S. would clinch the top spot in Group C and finish with one of the top two seeds as single-elimination play begins Tuesday.
Team Canada’s final preliminary round contest against France will end around two hours before the U.S. contest against the Germans begins, so the Americans will know exactly what they need in terms of goal-differential to surpass the Canadians’ goal-differential and land the top seed.Currently the Canadians are +9, while the United States is +7 with one game remaining each. Should the two end up tied in differential, the U.S currently has 11 total goals scored to the Canadians’ 10 in the tournament heading into play Sunday, making it likely the U.S. would win that should they manage to pull even in differential.
Should the Americans finish first, they would play the winner of Tuesday’s game between the eighth- and ninth-seeded teams in Wednesday’s quarterfinal round, and if they finish second, they would play the winner of seventh- and tenth-seeded teams. The last four teams standing will be reseeded for the semifinals.
A regulation loss to Germany would end the Americans’ hopes for a bye, as Finland is in the driver’s seat for the top second-place team with a +11 goal differential and would win a tiebreak should the U.S. fall in regulation.
The fourth-seeded team – the top second-place team – will have a bye and play the winner of Tuesday’s fifth and 12th seeded game on Wednesday, while the bottom eight seeds will begin single-elimination play on Tuesday to try and advance to the quarterfinals.
While the U.S. and Germany have a long history of playing throughout the history of the Winter Olympics with the Americans holding a 9-1 edge, including a 2022 win in the last games in China, the only time the U.S. has ever faced the Germans in a tournament using NHL players was the 2002 quarterfinals in Salt Lake City, in which the Americans rolled to a 5-0 win en route to the gold-medal game.
So, while Saturday’s win wasn’t pretty, it still put the U.S. in a good spot to claim a bye to the quarterfinals, and also put them within striking distance of the top seed, which would be important in their quest for their first men’s hockey gold since 1980, and first medal of any color since 2010.
