Olympic men's ice hockey: U.S. beat Germany 3-2 to top Group A
After an early score from Germany, the American squad controlled the action for their third straight win.
Ice Hockey
Needing a win or to force overtime to win Group A, Team USA rose to the occasion, notching its third-straight win in the Olympic ice hockey tournament over Germany Sunday (13 February) at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022. The U.S. triumphed 3-2.
PyeongChang 2018 silver medallists Germany struck first and early off a powerplay goal by Patrick Hager at the two-minute mark. The early goal put the Americans in a familiar position, having fallen behind against Canada early in their previous game.
But just like in that game, the U.S. squad responded quickly with Steven Kampfer scoring the equaliser at 4:26 during a four-minute double minor.
"We tightened it up on the 4 minutes and I think it built a little momentum for us going forward where we dictated the pressure there toward the end of the period," said Kampfer to U.S. broadcaster NBC.
That momentum carried onto the second period where the U.S.'s Matt Knies scored at 24:50, taking the 2-1 advantage.
"Honestly, they're a fast team, if we can keep up that pace and play around with them, play physical, I think we can take it to them and eventually win this game," said Knies in the break prior to the final period.
That's exactly what Team USA did, despite a late goal from the Germans. The U.S.'s Nathan Smith put his squad up 3-1 at 42:47. German's Tom Kuhnhackl scored at 57:31, but couldn't get the tying goal to force overtime.
"It's huge. I mean I think it proves that we can win these close games and down the road, that's going to be big for us," said Smith afterward on NBC. "It's just a big momentum shift for us."
The U.S. team heads to Wednesday's (16 February) quarterfinals as the top-seeded team.