MILAN — Sitting on the bench with the U.S. surprisingly trailing Denmark at the Milan Cortina Olympics, Jack Eichel and linemates Brady Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk talked about wanting to make a difference.
Then they did just that.
Eichel scored off his own faceoff win a minute after setting up Brady Tkachuk’s first of two goals the same way, and the U.S. rode its top line to a 6-3 defeat of Denmark on Saturday night, keeping pace with also-unbeaten Canada for the top seed in the men’s hockey tournament.
2026 Winter Olympics: Meet the medalists from the United States
“(We were) just sticking with it, trusting each other,” Brady Tkachuk said. “That’s what shows the character in our room is the trust and belief with one another that if we stick with it, we’ll like the result at the end of the day.”
The U.S. bounced back from goaltender Jeremy Swayman getting beaten by a shot from 95 feet away, just inside the center red line, 11 minutes in. Swayman won’t have to kick himself too badly for the blunder after some of his most talented teammates stepped up to make the long-distance goal from Nicholas B. Jensen and another soft one from Phillip Bruggisser with 2.6 seconds left in the second period moot.
“I’m really proud of this group for staying even-keeled,” Swayman said. “The confidence never left the group, and that’s a serious trait at this stage in the tournament. The guys rallied, and we got it done”
The goals by Tkachuk and Eichel — two-thirds of the top line along with Brady’s brother, Matthew — midway through the second period tied it and gave the U.S. the lead. Defenseman Noah Hanifin added another when his shot got through Mads Sogaard and trickled over the goal line a bit later, providing some breathing room that proved necessary.
Jake Guentzel fired a one-timer past Sogaard with a little more than 12 minutes left, and Brady Tkachuk scored his second off a feed from Jack Hughes after Sogaard exited with injury and was relieved by Frederik Dichow.
Captain Auston Matthews made the pass to Guentzel, and Zach Werenski — who accidentally knocked the puck into his own net on Denmark’s first goal credited to Nick Olesen — had the secondary assist to get some retribution.
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants from the very red, white and blue crowd filled the arena at the opening puck drop and after all the goals. Some fans in the stands had flags of Greenland, in light of recent rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump about taking control of the semiautonomous island overseen by Denmark.
None of the geopolitics reached the ice, and multiple Denmark players last week downplayed any connection between the Greenland situation and the game against the U.S. as heavy underdogs.
“We battled hard and tried everything we had,” Bruggisser said. “Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, but they’re an all-star team and we gave it what we had.”
After cruising past Latvia 5-1 in their opener on Thursday night behind two goals from Brock Nelson, the Americans have six points in the standings, the same as Canada, going into the final day of the preliminary round.
The U.S. wraps up round-robin play against Germany, Canada faces 0-2-0 France and if they each win in regulation, the No. 1 spot in the single-elimination knockout round would come down to goal differential.
Slovakia wins by losing to Sweden by two goals
Dalibor Dvorsky’s goal with 39 seconds left sent Slovakia to the quarterfinals as the winner of the group in a tiebreaker even after losing to Sweden 5-3. Slovakia won Group B when Finland crushed host Italy 11-0 later in the day because of goal differential among the three tied teams.
“It’s probably the best loss I ever had,” Slovakia’s Juraj Slafkovsky said. “It’s crazy, but we take it.”
Dvorsky, who plays for the St. Louis Blues in the NHL, also called it the best loss of his life. His goal on the power play after a penalty on Lucas Raymond made it happen.
Sweden, which played much better than it had in its 4-1 loss to archrival Finland on Friday, was left to lament a missed opportunity even after winning the game.
“Tough pill to swallow,” alternate captain Victor Hedman said. “But we will regroup. We’ll be ready for our next challenge.’’
Jacob Markstrom stopped 29 of the 32 shots he faced and may have supplanted Filip Gustavsson as Sweden’s starter moving forward. Sweden is locked into the seventh seed and will have to play in the qualification round Tuesday just to make it into the quarterfinals Wednesday.
Finland beats host Italy 11-0
Sebastian Aho, Kaapo Kakko, Joel Kiviranta and captain Mikael Granlund each scored twice for Finland in an 11-0 beatdown of host Italy. The 11-goal margin made it the most lopsided men’s hockey game at the Olympics since 1988, when Sweden beat France 13-2.
Because of goal differential, the Finns were incentivized to run up the score on an overmatched opponent. At one point, Finland had eight goals and Italy had eight shots.
Coach Antti Pennanen and his staff told players about the tiebreaker before puck drop.
“They knew that, and then we told them honestly what is the situation,” Pennanen said. “We had a plan. First plan: Win the game. And then do goals as much as you can.”
Barring something incredibly unforeseen Sunday, Finland is into the quarterfinals as the No. 4 seed.
Latvia upsets Germany
Eduards Tralmaks and Renars Krastenbergs scored just more than three minutes apart, and Latvia defeated Germany 4-3. Arturs Silovs of the Pittsburgh Penguins stopped 26 of the 29 shots he faced.
“We’re a good team,” said Zemgus Girgensons of the Buffalo Sabres, one of 10 NHL players on Latvia’s roster. “We believed it. I don’t think we go into the game thinking it’s going to be any other way. We came in today thinking we’re going to win. And that’s what we did.”
Germany’s Philipp Grubauer, who was excellent in an opening win against Denmark when he and his teammates were badly outshot, allowed four goals on 22 shots in the loss.
AP reporters John Wawrow and James Ellingworth contributed.
