Germany’s big boys came to play.
Day 2 of the men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics in Italy featured three games in addition to Canada blanking Czechia 5-0.
The most competitive affair was a showdown between Germany and Denmark that the Germans wound up winning 3-1. Two megastars who play for Canadian NHL clubs sparked Germany, as Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stutzle led the way with two goals, while Edmonton Oilers stud Leon Draisaitl kicked in the other.
It was Draisaitl who set the tone, staking the Germans to a 1-0 advantage just 23 seconds into the game when he drove hard down the middle of the offensive zone, got his blade planted on the ice and redirected a Frederik Tiffels feed past Danish goalie Frederik Andersen.
Of course, Draisaitl did not stop there and appeared in vintage form throughout the contest.
In the second frame, after 20-year-old Seattle Kraken second-rounder Oscar Molgaard had pulled Denmark even, Draisaitl tried to restore Germany’s lead with one of his patented moves. Driving down the right side of the ice, Draisaitl sucked the puck quickly from backhand to forehand and whizzed a low shot that Andersen had to be sharp to turn aside with his right pad.
Soon enough, though, Germany restored its lead when Wojciech Stachowiak went flying into the end boards and kicked a loose puck out to JJ Peterka. With the Danes scrambling, Peterka whisked the puck over to Stutzle, who one-timed a laser past Andersen on the glove side.
Moments later, Stutzle was blazing down the ice and dropped a pass to Peterka, who unloaded a shot from the stop of the circle that tested Andersen again.
Both Stutzle and Draisaitl factored into the equation when Germany did get its third goal, though it was ultimately a tough bounce that bit the Danes. With Germany on a power play just past the halfway point of the game, Stutzle spotted Draisaitl in the slot and tried to feed him a pass. Instead of finding his teammate’s blade, Stutzle’s pass struck Danish defender Oliver Lauridsen and kicked past Andersen.
Germany is a threat to beat anyone at this tournament, and with Stutzle and Draisaitl firing — to say nothing of stud defenceman Moritz Seider looking calm on the back end and Philipp Grubauer (37 saves versus Denmark) carrying over his strong play from the NHL this season — the Germans have to feel good about themselves out of the gate.
Thursday’s action in Milan also saw Team USA — a tournament co-favourite with Team Canada — hit the ice for their debut in a match with Latvia. The Latvians hung tough through 20 minutes, benefiting from two disallowed would-be American goals and some happy goalpost luck to emerge from the opening frame tied 1-1. However, the American skill took over from there.
Brock Nelson, who’s been on fire in the NHL for two months, brought his good juju to Italy and put the Americans ahead when he took a feed from Jack Hughes and — basically unchecked — closed on Elvis Merzlikins and duped the Columbus Blue Jackets stopper with a nice deke.
After that, it was Tage Thompson with a cheeky move on the power play that pushed the U.S. forward. After taking a puck at the side of the net, Thompson started to rotate as if he was going to shuffle to his forehand, then stopped halfway, twisted back and roofed a backhander under the bar. The rout was officially on only a couple minutes later when the Americans completely controlled the puck in the Latvian zone, working it from Jack Hughes to Matthew Tkachuk, back to Hughes and over to Nelson for a one-timer that marked his second tally of the game and put his team up by three. Throw in the game-opening goal by Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk and a strike from Toronto Maple Leafs (and Team USA) captain Auston Matthews on the power play in the third, and the Americans wound up with a 5-1 victory that saw Arturs Silovs replace the besieged Merzlikins after 40 minutes.
Beyond Nelson’s two-goal showing, the most encouraging thing for Team USA may have been the play of Jack Hughes. The New Jersey Devils centre never looked comfortable at last February’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Playing in his first Olympics, though, Hughes picked up two assists (the same number his brother, Quinn, recorded versus Latvia) and looked like his playmaking self while skating at wing on a line with Nelson in the middle and New York Rangers captain J.T. Miller on the other flank.
In the day’s first game, Switzerland opened and closed strong during a 4-0 whitewash of France. The middle frame, though, was further evidence that the gap between teams in this tournament is not always as wide as we think.
The Swiss definitely came out flying, netting the opening goal less than a minute after puck-drop and going up 2-0 just 3:06 into the affair.
First, it was Damien Riat — a fourth-round pick of the Washington Capitals in 2016 — who got the Swiss rolling. With his team on the power play following an offensive-zone infraction by France, Riat was cruising in the slot and found himself in the right spot at the right time when he swatted home a puck that kicked over to him after a shot by Philipp Kurashev.
The next goal came courtesy of a nice effort from Tampa Bay Lighting defenceman J.J. Moser, who picked up a pass at centre ice and weaved his way into the French zone. While goalie Antoine Keller would probably like another stab at the shot that snuck under him, Moser still showed great skill to dance in on the attack and whip the puck home.
At that point, it felt as though the Swiss could blow the doors of France. However, the French dug in and came up with a strong second period. Defenceman Florian Chakiachvili walloped Swiss (and Nashville Predators) captain Roman Josi with a huge hit in the neutral zone, and both Stephane Da Costa and linemate Floran Douay had glorious chances to pull France within a goal of a Swiss side that was suddenly stuck in the mud.
Switzerland, though, was moving better toward the end of the period and wound up putting the contest away with two strikes by New Jersey Devils winger Timo Meier in the final frame. Just past the halfway point of the period, Josi blazed into the French end, curled around the net and whipped a pass over to Meier for a 3-0 tap-in that gave Switzerland some breathing room. From there, the Swiss put the game on ice when Meier popped his second goal in seven minutes with just 3:47 to go in the match.
Veteran Swiss goalie Leonardo Genoni — who came up with two or three monster saves at points in the game when the result was still in doubt — stopped 27 of 27 shots for the shutout. According to the broadcast, the 38-year-old became the oldest goalie in the “NHL Era” to record a shutout at the Games.
The non-Canadian action on Day 3 is highlighted by an early morning (6:10 a.m. ET) clash between all-time rivals Finland and Sweden, so get those alarms set.