MILAN — Sitting on the bench with the U.S. surprisingly trailing Denmark at the 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 goal 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.
“[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 Brady 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 Jack Hughes scored off a feed from Brock Nelson 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 against Denmark, which entered 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 rolling over Latvia 5-1 in their opener 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, while Canada faces 0-2-0 France. If they each win in regulation, the No. 1 spot in the single-elimination knockout round would come down to goal differential.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
