U.S. men’s hockey overcomes Denmark to remain undefeated in Olympic play
“It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.”
Captain Auston Matthews said that motto summed up the game for the U.S. men’s hockey team on Saturday.
Despite trailing 2-1 to Denmark after the first period, they triumphed 6-3 to secure the win and remain undefeated in the Olympic tournament.
The United States went down early after Denmark’s Nick Olseson scored less than two minutes into the game.
Matt Boldy answered with the lone U.S. goal of the first period. The wrap-around shot, assisted by Quinn Hughes, was the first Olympic goal for Boldy and tied up the game.
Nicholas B. Jensen added another for Denmark to send the U.S. into the locker room down by a goal after the first period.
But whatever was said to Team USA during the first intermission, it worked. The squad came out energized and scored back-to-back goals within a minute to take the lead.
The first came after Jack Eichel won the face-off and fed a fired-up Brady Tkachuk to tie the game.
U.S. head coach Mike Sullivan said the team continued to get better as the game went on. “I love the resilience of our team and especially the response after the first period,” he said.
Next, Eichel took it upon himself to put the Americans ahead. The Vegas Golden Knights center won the face-off again and finished off the bounce for a beautiful unassisted goal.
“They do a great job of dragging guys into the fight, they score big goals, and make big plays at big times,” Eichel said of Brady and his brother Matthew Tkachuk after the game.
The U.S. squad would go on to score three more times, at the hands of Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes, to seal the 6-3 U.S. victory.
“No game’s going to be easy, we realize that, and it was good of the group to continue to play our game for 60 minutes,” Eichel said after the win.
Next, the U.S. men’s hockey team plays Germany on Feb. 15 to close out the group stage. Watch the matchup live on NBCOlympics.com and Peacock.
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