Men's ice hockey Day 4 Round Up: United States upends Canada, while Czech Republic stuns ROC

The United States men claimed their first Olympic victory over Canada since Vancouver 2010, while Czech Republic beat reigning champions ROC in the Beijing 2022 men's ice hockey tournament on Saturday (12 February)

Canada's Maxim Noreau bemoaned his team's defensive efforts against a vibrant young U.S. side, saying. "They are a strong team, and we gave them too much room on some of those goals."

Also in Group A, Germany held off a spirited fightback by hosts China to triumph 3-2.

ROC finished top of Group B despite a 6-5 overtime defeat to Czech Republic having not conceded in their opening two wins.

Olympic debutants Denmark could join them after their 5-3 defeat of Switzerland saw them take second place with the Czechs and Swiss going through to the qualification playoffs.

The action continues on Sunday with four match-ups: Slovakia play Latvia, Finland take on Sweden, China face Canada, and the USA go up against Germany.

Canada 2, USA 4

The United States went top of Group A courtesy of a hard-fought 4-2 victory over arch-rivals Canada.

The victory was the Americans' first over their northern neighbours in Olympic competition since the preliminary rounds of Vancouver 2010 when they triumphed 5-3.

Canada struck the first blow in the tit-for-tat battle, with Mat Robinson giving his side a 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the clash.

The U.S. punched back with captain Andy Miele, Ben Meyers and Brendan Brisson, giving their side the edge.

Corban Knight closed to gap to one late in the second period, but Kenny Agostino completed the scoring as USA showed off their medal credentials.

Canadian defenceman Noreau said bluntly, "We will have to learn from that. There are no excuses. We have to get better."

Germany 3, China 2

PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Germany were pushed to the brink by a spirited Chinese team.

The Germans stamped their authority early on in the encounter with first-period strikes from Marcel Brandt and Korbinian Holzer before Dominik Kahun made it 3-0 with 24:41 played.

Back came the hosts with Fu Shuai scoring his country’s first goal in men's Olympic hockey with seconds remaining in the second period.

Wang Taile reduced the gap further midway through the third, but the Germans held on for a nervous victory.

Despite their defeat, Fu was understandably delighted about his historic goal. He said, "It is pretty crazy. I can’t take all the credit. It is a team effort for sure. All the way leading up to that goal, everyone has bought in.

"For me, it is a huge honour. I will remember it for a long time.”

ROC 5, Czech Republic 6 (OT)

ROC had scored three and conceded none going into their final Group B game against Czech Republic.

Then came this goal-fest with Libor Sulak scoring on the power-play 4:29 into overtime to give the Czechs consecutive wins after their shootout triumph over Switzerland on Friday.

Tomas Kondratek cancelled out Vladimir Tkachyov's early strike before Nikita Nesterov restored ROC's lead midway through the second period.

Two goals in quick succession from shootout hero David Krejci and Michael Spacek gave the Czechs the lead going into the final period before Lukas Klok made it 4-2.

ROC hit back immediately through Kirill Semyonov before Arseni Gritsyuk and Andrei Chibisov put them back in front in a wild encounter.

Tomas Hyka's equaliser after 48:57 was the seventh goal in just over 10 minutes of mayhem, but that was the end of the scoring in regulation before Sulak's overtime winner.

While ROC topped the group to move safely through to the quarter-finals, the Czechs looks to be building up a head of steam ahead of their qualification playoff.

Sulak said afterwards, "Lots of goals, lots of goals. They have a two-goal lead, we take a two-goal lead. Back and forth. Crazy game. We bounced back. This is a huge win for us."

Switzerland 3, Denmark 5

Denmark handed Switzerland their third defeat of the Beijing 2022 tournament in their final round-robin Group B clash.

The Swiss opened the scoring through an Enzo Corvi goal but could not build on that early advantage.

Denmark roared back with two goals in quick succession at the start of the second period by Peter Regin and Frederik Storm, the first coming just seven seconds into a power play.

Mikkel Boedker increased the Danes' lead before Nicolai Meyer found the net early in the third period to make it 4-1.

Goals from Romain Loeffel and Fabrice Herzog moved the Swiss back to within one but, after pulling their goalie in their bid for an equaliser, Storm shot into an empty net for his second of the game to settle the outcome.

That was Denmark's second win out of three on their Olympic debut with their former NHL centre Frans Nielsen saying, "We knew we had a good team. We knew we are a difficult team to score against if we play the right way

"The first two games, we didn't score enough goals to get more points. But today it was good to see them go in."

Schedule - Sunday, 13 February

Here's a look at tomorrow's schedule:

12:10 Slovakia vs Latvia (Group C)
16:40 Finland vs Sweden (Group C)

16:40 China vs Canada (Group A)
21:10 USA vs Germany (Group C)