MILAN – The American men’s hockey team goes into their last preliminary round game of the 2026 Winter Olympics having earned a measure of resilience.
Much as their Group C play so far has been against underdogs – and that won’t change in the final preliminary game on Sunday, Feb. 15, at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena – the Americans’ 2-0 record hasn’t come without challenges. The Danes twice forced the U.S. to play from behind, and kept Saturday’s game close going into the third period before the U.S. pulled away, 6-3. Against Latvia, the Americans had to deal with two called-back goals.
‘I think it can serve us well moving forward,’ U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said after the victory over Denmark. ‘Because when you hit bumps in the road and you’re able to overcome those types of things, I think it says a lot about your group. And I think it galvanizes the group in a lot of ways.
‘It also provides hard evidence that we’re able to overcome anything that comes our way. And that’s an important part of success in this type of a tournament.’
A victory over Germany would put the U.S. in first play in group play, and earn a bye into the quarterfinals.
‘We’ve just got to keep building our game,’ Sullivan said. ‘I think that’s part of the process, is just trying to get better each and every day, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to refine, we’re trying to define and refine, every single day. We’ve just got to keep moving the needle. We want to become a better version of ourselves.’
Jack Eichel described the team as an ‘unfinished product’ when asked what the Americans need to work on as the preliminary round wraps up.
‘I think you want to be good with puck management,’ he said. ‘You want to be good breaking the puck out and transitioning from defense to offense. Some of our D-zone structure, things like that, some of the breakdowns we’ve had, to continue to improve on. We’re going to continue to get better. It’s all part of this.’
The Americans didn’t start well against Denmark, falling behind 2-1 on a fluky goal when Jeremy Swayman didn’t see the puck that Nicholas B. Jensen fired from near his own bench. But in both of their preliminary games the Americans have put on dominant performances in the second period, putting themselves in position to put the games away in the third period.
‘I thought that if we played our game for 60 minutes, things would go our way, and they did,’ Eichel said. ‘I give them credit, they played really hard, they were opportunistic. They got a couple goals. No game is going to be easy, we realized that. I thought it was good of the group to continue to play our game for 60 minutes and find a way to win.’
Eichel set up Brady Tkachuk’s tying goal midway through the game and then scored to make it 3-2. Tkachuk is off to a great start in the tournament, with goals in each game and his usual strong physical presence.
‘He’s a beast,’ Sullivan said. ‘He’s a beast. His energy is contagious. He’s so vocal on the bench in between periods. He’s a positive guy. He drags everybody into the fight, literally and figuratively, and that’s what we love about him.’
From their first line to what masquerades as their fourth line (Jack Hughes is on it) and their defensive pairings and goaltending depth that numbers Swayman, Connor Hellebyck (who started against Latvia) and Jake Oettinger, the Americans are poised to earn a couple days before the quarterfinals if they take care of the Germans like they did the Latvians and Danes.
‘it’s one of those quick tournaments that you kind of have to find it quick,’ Tkachuk said. ‘I think that’s what’s so good about our group, is that we’re just kind of scratching at it right now and it’s going to work out that we’re going to peak at the right time.’