The Americans beat Germany 5-1 finishing the preliminary round with a flawless 3-0 record in what was their best game of the Olympic Games, suppressing Germany defensively only allowing one goal. Team USA were in cruise control from start to finish, making the Germans look like a minor league team.
Team US scored in every period with 4 players netting a goal, and 10 logging at least a point. Zach Werenski, Brock Faber, Tage Thompson, and Auston Matthews (2 goals), all contributed to the goals column.
Werenski scored his first goal of the Olympic Game from the right faceoff dot in the 1st period with only 8.7 seconds left. Austin Matthews’s first goal came on another powerplay in the 2nd period, right before Brock Faber sent a long-range zinger from between the blue line and the right circle that might’ve been tipped by Jack Eichel.
Tage Thompson had a great one-timer bullet from the deep slot that went high blocker side on the tendy giving Team USA a comfortable 4-0 lead. To close it out, Jake Sanderson made a shot attempt that was redirected and tipped in by Auston Matthews, gifting the captain his second goal of the game.
A great performance by Team USA. All players were pleased with the effort, discipline, and relentlessness and voiced how well they played from puck drop to the end.
Team USA Defenseman, Zach Werenski on the team’s performance:
“I think today was our best sixty minutes for sure. We’ve had good moments throughout this tournament, good periods. But today was our most consistent, our stingiest defensively, though we created a lot of offense.
– Team USA Defenseman, Zach Werenski
Werenski’s comments were very much on point considering the Americans are the only team to have not allowed a powerplay goal in the games so far, and how well the Germans are a balanced and stacked with players such as Tim Stutzle, JJ Peterka, Leon Draisaitl, and Philip Grubauer.
This victory over the Germans bestowed Team USA vital momentum going into the quarterfinals with a bye this round that’ll give them a little more time to rest, recover, and reset. The Americans finished as the best team in “Group C”, the 2nd overall seed behind Canada, and set them up to face the winner of the “Knockout Round” in an elimination game between Sweden and Latvia on Tuesday.
Dante Robinson | Senior NHL Analyst for The NSR Network
