TOP SPOT IN GROUP C

Team USA won all three of its preliminary round games in regulation to claim the top spot in Group C and the second overall seed in the playoff round. Its most recent outing came on Feb. 15 with a 5-1 win over Germany. Sweden played last night in the qualification round and beat Latvia, 5-1, to earn a spot in tonight’s contest. In the preliminary round, the Swedes beat Italy (5-2) and Slovakia (5-3), while losing to Finland (4-1). 

QUARTERFINAL HISTORY

The U.S. has dropped its last two games in the quarterfinals, both by a 3-2 count in a shootout — to Slovakia in 2022 and Czech Republic in 2018. The U.S. is 4-5 all-time in quarterfinal contests at the Games. It most recent quarterfinal win came in 2014 at the Sochi games with a 5-2 triumph over the Czech Republic. The U.S. has won three of its five quarterfinal contests with NHL players competing in the Games.

Connor Hellebuyck will be back in net tonight for Team USA. He is second in the tournament in both save percentage (.952) and goals against average (1.00) and has played in two of Team USA’s three games to date, including its last outing on Sunday (Feb. 15) where he stopped 23 of 24 shots in a 5-1 win over Germany.