MILAN — Matthew Tkachuk insists he and his U.S. teammates were focused only on beating Germany in their preliminary round finale and never worried about scoring enough goals to pass Canada for the top seed at the Olympics.
“We never talked once about the top seed at all,” Tkachuk said. “None of that seeding stuff. All that handles itself.”
It’s handled now, after the U.S. defeated Germany 5-1 on Sunday behind two goals and an assist from captain Auston Matthews and 23 saves from Connor Hellebuyck. The Americans finished group play unbeaten to clinch the second seed in the knockout round.
“The confidence just continues to grow within our group,” Matthews said. “Each game, I think we’ve taken steps in the right direction of where we want to grow our game going into the quarterfinals, and it’s good to see.”
Canada put such a beatdown on France, winning 10-2, that the U.S. would have had to run up the score and beat Germany by 10 goals to pass the tournament favorite. The North American rivals cannot meet until the gold medal game.
They have to get there first. The U.S. is set to face the winner of the qualification round game Tuesday between Sweden and Latvia, while Canada plays Czechia or Denmark in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
Sweden, the only European team at the Olympics with a full roster of NHL players, won two of its three preliminary round games and dropped to seventh only because of a goal differential tiebreaker.
“A super-skilled team, a lot of guys we see throughout the NHL season,” said defenseman Zach Werenski, whose goal was set up by Matthews. “They have a lot of talent on that team, and we know last year at the 4 Nations it was a hard game. I expect the same thing in the quarters if that’s who we’re playing against.”
It could be quite the test for the U.S., which has faced Latvia, Denmark and Germany so far.
The game against Germany was a chance for the Americans to fine-tune their play before the tournament goes to single-elimination playoffs. Tkachuk had a pair of assists, and Matthews, the captain just as he was at the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago, had his best showing of the tournament.
Hellebuyck also looked good in his second start, allowing only a goal to Tim Stutzle. The U.S. got the goaltending it expected from him after a shaky outing from Jeremy Swayman 24 hours earlier.
“I thought it was his best game,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “I just think he was tracking pucks extremely well.”
