MILAN – The United States trailed Denmark 2-1 after the first period on Saturday night and Brady Tkachuk was feeling frustrated.

“I wasn’t happy with my own game and thought it needed to be a lot better,” the Ottawa Senators captain said. “I wouldn’t say the team needed a boost, it’s just [I needed] to get myself going and get myself to be a lot better than I was, because it wasn’t very good.”

In the dressing room, coach Mike Sullivan called for a more simplified, north-south approach. Tkachuk, who seemed to have the same energy as usual in the opening period despite his self-critique, simply amplified the style that makes him so effective in the NHL. The 6-foot-4, 224-pound winger started throwing his weight around even more.

“When the pucks are bouncing and [I’m] not great with the puck, I feel like a part of my game is just being physical and making an impact that way,” Tkachuk said. “I thought that could maybe spark the other side of things. It’s just doing whatever it takes to help the team.”

Tkachuk scored in the second period to tie things up and celebrated emphatically. The goal sparked a 6-3 win, which allowed the United States to improve to 2-0-0-0 at the Olympics with one game left in the preliminary round.

“He’s a beast,” Sullivan told reporters in the mixed zone. “His energy is contagious. He’s so vocal on the bench, in between periods. He’s a positive guy. He drags everybody into the fight, literally and figuratively, and that’s what we love about him.”

GOAL: Brady Tkachuk, the only guy who came to play today. 2-2.

— Mark Lazerus (@MarkLazerus) February 14, 2026

Brady Tkachuk is playing the straightforward, no nonsense game that should be the U.S.’s bread and butter. But not everybody in red, white and blue is playing that style right now.

— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) February 14, 2026

The Americans entered Saturday’s game as the heavy favourite against a Danish side short on NHL talent. But Team USA surprisingly found itself playing from behind after a neutral-zone shot by Nicholas Jensen somehow eluded Jeremy Swayman.

“It was a flash screen and I truly lost it in the stands,” the Boston Bruins goalie explained. “It’s dark stands and a dark puck. One I really want back, but at this level you just have to park it and move forward and take it one shot at a time.”

‘One I really want back’: Swayman allows long-range goal after losing puck in stands Following the United States’ 6-3 win over Denmark on Saturday, Team USA goalie Jeremy Swayman discusses the resilience by his team to fight back and get a win, and what he saw on the long-range goal he allowed.

The Danes defended stubbornly to maintain their advantage until the midpoint of the middle frame when Tkachuk finally broke through with a goal off a faceoff win by Jack Eichel.

“We stuck with it,” Tkachuk said. “Not everything is going to be exactly how you draw it up, picture perfect, and I thought we handled adversity really well. It just speaks to the character and just the trust and belief we have in one another.”

“They come out, they play hard, their goalie is playing hard,” said New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes, who scored the final goal of the night. “We have one of the deepest teams here and if we just stick to our game we’re going to roll teams over. But these teams are good teams. Like, maybe people at home just expect big scores, but all these guys are good players and they play hard and they can skate well so it’s hard hockey out there.”

The U.S. eventually wore down the Danes, but their chances at beating out Canada for the top seed in the playoff round took a significant hit. The North American rivals both have two regulation wins in two games and if they continue to stay perfect the No. 1 seed will come down to goal differential. Canada is plus-nine ahead of Sunday’s game against France. The U.S. is plus-seven ahead of their preliminary-round finale against Germany on Sunday night.

Whoever finishes as the No. 2 seed will likely be lined up to face fellow favourite Sweden in the quarterfinals. Despite winning two of three games, the Swedes finished third in their group behind Slovakia and Finland due to a goal-differential tiebreaker.

“The No. 1 seed would be nice, but whoever we play in the quarters it’s going to be a good team,” Hughes said. “We just want to keep finding our game and I think it’s less about the seeding and more about how we’re playing and how we’re feeling about our game. If it happens great, if it doesn’t we’ll keep moving on.”

Assuming no major upsets (never a safe assumption in international hockey), the 2nd seed overall is likely on a path to meet Sweden in the quarters. So the battle between 🇨🇦 and 🇺🇸 for the top seed gets a little more intriguing. Would come down to goal differential.
🇨🇦 +9 after…

— James Duthie (@tsnjamesduthie) February 14, 2026

The three group winners and the best second-place team advance directly to the quarterfinals, which will be played on Wednesday. The other eight teams in the tournament will play in a qualification round on Tuesday with the four winners moving on.

Regardless of seeding, the Americans are anticipating significant crowd support moving forward. Chants of “USA! USA!” have echoed around Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena during both their games.

“It’s sick,” Hughes said of the atmosphere. “There’s a lot of USA fans there. I’m sure a lot of people are coming over. I know part of our crew is starting to come over now. I’m sure the USA fans will start to take over a little bit more.”

‘I’m sure USA fans will start to take over more’: Devils’ Hughes loving Olympic atmosphere Jack Hughes discusses what it’s like to play in the atmosphere at Milano Cortina 2026 alongside his brother Quinn Hughes, and what it means to score in the Olympics.