{"id":471117,"date":"2026-02-16T01:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471117\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T01:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:45:09","slug":"u-s-beats-germany-to-stay-unbeaten-at-the-olympics-but-canada-is-the-top-seed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471117\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. beats Germany to stay unbeaten at the Olympics, but Canada is the top seed"},"content":{"rendered":"

MILAN \u2014 Matthew Tkachuk insists he and his U.S. teammates were only focused on beating Germany in their preliminary round finale and never worried about scoring enough goals to pass Canada for the top seed\u00a0at the Winter Olympics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never talked once about the top seed at all,\u201d Tkachuk said. \u201cNone of that seeding stuff. All that handles itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s handled now, after the U.S. defeated Germany 5-1 on Sunday night 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confidence just continues to grow within our group,\u201d Matthews said. \u201cEach game I think we\u2019ve taken steps in the right direction of where we want to grow our game going into the quarterfinals and it\u2019s good to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a0North American rivals\u00a0cannot meet until the gold medal game.<\/p>\n

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 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Sweden is the only European team at the Olympics with a full roster of NHL players, won two of its three preliminary round games and only dropped to seventh because of a goal differential tiebreaker.<\/p>\n

\u201cA super-skilled team, a lot of guys we see throughout the NHL season,\u201d said defenseman Zach Werenski, whose goal was set up by Matthews. \u201cThey 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\u2019s who we\u2019re playing against.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be quite the test for the U.S., which has only faced\u00a0Latvia,\u00a0Denmark\u00a0and Germany so far.<\/p>\n

The Germany game was a chance for the Americans to fine-tune their play before the tournament goes to single-elimination playoffs. Matthew 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.<\/p>\n

Hellebuyck also looked good in his second start, allowing only a goal to Tim St\u00fctzle. The U.S. got the goaltending it expected from him after a\u00a0shaky outing from Jeremy Swayman\u00a024 hours earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was his best game,\u201d coach Mike Sullivan said. \u201cI just think he was tracking pucks extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crosby, McDavid and Canada crush France<\/p>\n

Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid each had a goal and two assists in a clinical, businesslike 10-2 dismantling of France. Canada finished round robin play undefeated, outscoring opponents by 17 goals over three games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did what we came to do,\u201d said McDavid, who leads all scorers in Milan. \u201dWe came to win a hockey game and continue to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blowout also included\u00a0Tom Wilson fighting\u00a0the player who delivered a forearm to Nathan MacKinnon\u2019s face a couple of minutes earlier. MacKinnon returned and Wilson was ejected, since fighting is a game misconduct under international rules, but the already popular teammate earned even more respect inside Canada\u2019s locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to stick up for his guys,\u201d forward Sam Bennett said. \u201cHe\u2019s a leader on this team and he\u2019s a guy that\u2019s going to protect our guys and do whatever it takes for our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini, Canada\u2019s youngest player at 19, scored on a penalty shot and on the power play against France to give him four goals in three games. Wilson, picked by coach Jon Cooper to ride shotgun on the top line on McDavid\u2019s right wing, also had a goal, an assist and some big hits.<\/p>\n

Mark Stone scored short-handed with 3.4 seconds left in the first period and had two assists. Brandon Hagel had Canada\u2019s ninth goal in the third before Celebrini scored the 10th.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/a>National reaction: Calls for Jake Oettinger ring out after Jeremy Swayman\u2019s Olympics gaffe<\/a><\/p>\n

Swayman\u2019s gaffe against Denmark led to multiple calls for Stars goalie Jake Oettinger to dress out for the U.S.<\/p>\n

\"United<\/a>U.S. men\u2019s hockey tops Denmark, stays unbeaten in group play<\/a><\/p>\n

The Americans are set to face off with Germany in their next game on Sunday. <\/p>\n

Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MILAN \u2014 Matthew Tkachuk insists he and his U.S. teammates were only focused on beating Germany in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,966,4825,218692,3,1082,99,1507,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-471117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-dallas-stars","11":"tag-jake-oettinger","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-olympics","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-stars","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}