Olympic men’s hockey: U.S. routs Germany, claims No. 2 seed

MILAN, Italy — Auston Matthews scored twice and set up Zach Werenski’s goal with a textbook pass, Connor Hellebuyck stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced, and the U.S. defeated Germany 5-1 on Sunday night to finish men’s hockey group play at the Olympics unbeaten and clinch the second seed in the knockout round.

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 North American rivals cannot meet until the gold medal game.

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.

Sweden, 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.

It could be quite the test for the U.S., which has only faced Latvia, Denmark and Germany so far.

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.

Hellebuyck also looked good in his second start, allowing only a goal to Tim Stützle. The U.S. got the goaltending it expected from him after a shaky outing from Jeremy Swayman 24 hours earlier.