The United States concluded its preliminary round of the Olympic hockey tournament Sunday with a clear-cut 5-1 victory over Germany. The Americans matched their rivals from Team Canada with 3 regulation victories in the opening round. Canada and Team USA will be the top two seeds in the quarterfinal round of the tournament.
Germany represented the biggest challenge for Team USA in the opening round after victories over Latvia and Denmark. The German team featured NHL stars Leon Draisaitl and Tim Stutzle as well as several other excellent players. However, the United States played a strong game from start to finish and kept the Germans off the scoreboard until the late stages of the final period when Stutzle scored with less than 9 minutes to go.
The United States took the lead in the final seconds of the first period when defenseman Zach Werenski ripped home the opening goal of the game. Team USA added two more goals in the second period as team captain Auston Matthews and Brock Faber added to the lead.
Tage Thompson and Matthews scored in the final period to put the game out of reach. Matthew Tkachuk added a pair of assists and brother Brady Tkachuk also had a helper.
Matthew Tkachuck also demonstrated that he knows how to verbally skewer opponents as well as anyone in the Olympics. After Team USA built its big lead, he got within a few feet of Draisaitl and shouted, “Always the bridesmaid, Leon, never the bride.”
Tkachuk's Florida Panthers had beaten Draisaitl's Edmonton Oilers in the last Stanley Cup Finals, and the U.S. victory was one more jab that Draisaitl had to absorb from the mouthy Tkachuk.
