By Amy Tennery
MILAN, Feb 14 (Reuters) – The United States came back to beat Denmark 6-3 in the Olympic preliminary stage on Saturday, as the podium contenders muscled their way to a second win in the men’s ice hockey tournament. Matt Boldy scored in the first period for the Americans while Jack Eichel assisted Brady Tkachuk in the second and netted another goal a minute later. Defenceman Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Jack Hughes added goals, restoring order to what had been a surprisingly tight contest.
“It’s a 60-minute game, they had a few bounces go their way in the first period,” said Eichel. “Give them credit, they played really hard.”
The United States play Germany while Denmark play Latvia on Sunday in the final two Group C games. U.S. goalie Jeremy Swayman lost track of the puck as forward Nick Olesen pushed it over the line in the second minute, before U.S. forward Boldy grabbed his own rebound and wrapped around the net to level it. Denmark asserted themselves again midway through the period, when Nicholas B. Jensen fired one in from the blue line in front of the U.S. bench for a 2-1 lead, and the contest turned testy as Tkachuk got into it with Denmark’s alternate captain Oliver Lauridsen ahead of the intermission. The American winger ripped a wrist shot in midway through the second period for the equaliser and his linemate Eichel won a faceoff and scored off an assist from Tkachuk’s brother Matthew less than a minute later. Hanifin’s rebound tipped off the post and over the line to make it 4-2, but Denmark stayed in it as defenceman Phillip Bruggisser shot a laser into the back of the net with less than three seconds left in the period. The U.S. engine was firing on all cylinders in the final period, when the captain Auston Matthews overcame a smothering Denmark defence to feed the puck to forward Guentzel, who fired it into the far corner for the insurance goal. Jack Hughes banged one in off the back of the Danish goalie’s pad to put the contest out of reach.
“I thought the whole group really stepped up in the third period,” said Eichel. “Our team’s going to continue to get better as this tournament goes.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery and Janina Nuno Rios in Milan; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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