After struggling early, U.S. men’s hockey team dispatches Denmark 6-3 in group stage of Winter Olympics

Jack Eichel scored off his own faceoff win a minute after setting up Brady Tkachuk’s first of two goals 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 at the Olympics.

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.

The goals by 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 Brady Tkachuk scored his second off a feed from Jack Hughes 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. Some fans in the stands had flags of Greenland, in light of recent rhetoric from U.S. President Donald Trump about taking control of the semiautonomous island overseen by Denmark.

None of the geopolitics reached the ice, and multiple Denmark players last week downplayed any connection between the Greenland situation and the game against the U.S. as heavy underdogs.

After rolling over Latvia 5-1 in their opener on 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, Canada faces 0-2-0 France and if they each win in regulation, the No. 1 spot in the single-elimination knockout round would come down to goal differential.