Men's ice hockey Day 2 Round Up: USA brush aside China, Canada power past Germany

Canada, the United States, and Finland flexed their muscles on the second day of action in the men's ice hockey tournament at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

The rematch of the PyeongChang 2018 semi-final between Canada and Germany had the makings of a close game, but three first-period goals put the North Americans in charge as they ran out 5-1 winners.

Their captain, Vancouver 2010 gold medallist Eric Staal thinks there may be more to come, telling Olympics.com, "It was tight, it was competitive, a good start for our guys. Hopefully we'll get better as the tournament goes on."

Their neighbours USA cruised to an 8-0 victory against hosts China with Sean Farrell scoring a hat-trick, while Sweden defeated Latvia 3-2, and Finland sounded a warning shot by beating Slovakia 6-2.

Action continues on Friday with four match-ups: Denmark play ROC, the Czech Republic meet Switzerland, Sweden face Slovakia, and Latvia take on Finland.

Canada best Germany, 5-1

Canada put the rest of the field on notice with a 5-1 win over PyeongChang silver medallists.

The champions from Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014 were at full tilt from the start with Alex Grant, Ben Street and Daniel Winnik finding the net in the first period.

Tobias Rieder pulled one back in the second but that was quickly cancelled out by Maxim Noreau's strike before Jordan Weal completed the scoring.

Captain Staal thought the scoreline may not have quite reflected the intensity of the clash, saying, "I thought both teams came out pretty physical, some good chances for us early, and we were able to capitalise. As the game wore on, we got better, a little bit more zone time, hold the play a little bit more."

USA overpower China 8-0

The United States asserted their dominance with an 8-0 shutout victory over China in the hosts' Olympic men’s hockey debut.

Olympic debutant Sean Farrell led the U.S. charge with a hat-trick as Brian O'Neill, Matty Beniers, Noah Cates, Ben Meyers, and Brendan Brisson scored one apiece.

The two-time Olympic champions started slowly with a single Brisson goal in the first period, but soon found their rhythm with three in the second period and four in the third.

"I feel like we've been getting a lot of shots, getting guys to the net, playing good defensively, and I was able to get a shot off on the powerplay that went in," Brisson told U.S. broadcaster NBC. "We're just going to keep focusing on getting to net and playing good in our own zone."

Finland overhaul Slovakia, 6-2

A Sakari Manninen hat-trick helped Finland in their 6-2 defeat of Slovakia in their opening Group C match, after the underdogs had taken the lead.

Slovakia's 17-year-old forward Juraj Slafkovsky opened the scoring five minutes into proceedings, but Manninen levelled before Harri Pesonen and Miro Aaltonen sent the Finns into the interval 3-1 ahead.

Manninen scored again midway through the second period before Slafkovsky's second gave the Slovaks hope.

But the final period saw Manninen complete his hat-trick and Aaltonen score his second to give the scoreline a one-sided appearance which Finland coach Jukka Jalonen admitted did not reflect the game.

He said, "We are happy for that and that we scored six goals. We had a great power play, a great penalty kill, very good goaltending, but still, I can't say that it was a 6-2 game. Slovakia played well, and the numbers are favouring us a little bit.

"I think we were just very efficient today. Sometimes, with those chances, you will score one or two goals, but we scored six."

Finland look like medal contenders as they go in search of an elusive Olympic gold.

Sweden topple Latvia, 3-2

Sweden held off a late charge by Latvia to kick off their campaign in Beijing with a victory in their Group C match.

The two-time Olympic champions stormed to a 3-0 lead in just over half-hour of play courtesy of a brace by Lucas Wallmark and a second-period goal by Anton Lander.

But Latvia then scored two power-play goals - first from Renars Krastenbergs late in the second period, and then Nikolajs Jelisejevs early in the third - to make things tense.

But the Swedes held on much to the relief of coach Johan Garpenlov.

He said afterwards, "We've been talking about getting a good start from the beginning.

"We knew we had Latvia, and tomorrow (Friday) we have Slovakia, that we have a good chance to win against. But the main focus today was our own game, to play after our own system, trying to find the chemistry between the guys."

Schedule - Friday, 11 February

Here's a look at tomorrow's schedule:

12:10 Denmark vs ROC (Group B)
16:40 Czech Republic vs Switzerland (Group B)

16:40 Sweden vs Slovakia (Group C)
21:10 Latvia vs Finland (Group C)