United States ready to take on Germany in preliminary round finale

MILAN -- It’s all right in front of Team USA when it comes to winning Group C at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

If they get one point against Team Germany on Sunday (3:10 p.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Télé, CBC Gem, TSN, CBC), they take the group and earn a bye into the quarterfinal round.

They could get it with a regulation win, an overtime win. Even an overtime loss.

It seems pretty simple. But when it comes to playing Leon Draisaitl of Germany, nothing is.

The Hart Trophy winner as the NHL most valuable player in 2019-20, and the leading goal-scorer in the League last season for the Edmonton Oilers, presents headaches for any opponent on any continent. He’s fifth in the NHL this season with 80 points (29 goals, 51 assists).

Add to that Moritz Seider, who leads all Detroit Red Wings defensemen with 38 points (seven goals, 31 assists) and forward Tim Stutzle, who leads the Ottawa Senators with 61 points (28 goals, 33 assists) and you see how dangerous Germany is.

“They have some game-breakers on that side, we have a lot of respect for how good they are,” U.S. coach Mike Sullivan said. “It will be a competitive game. This is what we expect.”

Germany only has seven NHL players on its roster, with forwards JJ Peterka (Utah Mammoth), Lukas Reichel (Vancouver Canucks) and Nico Sturm (Minnesota Wild) and goalie Philipp Grubauer (Seattle Kraken), joining Draisaitl, Seider and Stutzle.

But U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk says with Germany, it’s a matter of quality, not quantity.

"They definitely have the most, I would say, NHL stars on their team, guys you definitely have to look out for -- an NHL goalie, a No. 1 defenseman, some really good forwards,” Tkachuk said. “I'm sure they're going to give us a really good game as well. Our goal here is to come in and win the group, really just take it one game at a time here. Win this one tomorrow is the goal whether it's 2-1, 1-0, whatever it takes. But I think we can get comfortable in those games and we have been."

U.S. forward Dylan Larkin knows Seider well, since they are teammates on the Red Wings. He plays against Stutzle in the Atlantic Division, and everyone knows Draisaitl.

“I think those three players are guys we are going to have to watch out for,” Larkin said. “But there are guys there that are going to battle. They’re going to play defensive. But also, we take penalties and give them chances, they are going to capitalize.”

Larkin said though the U.S. knows about the different scenarios with goal differential and standings points, they just need to play their game.

“Well, of course you think about it,” Larkin said. “But winning is the probably the most important. We take care of our business tomorrow, we play our game, we’re going to be in a good spot and that’s that.”

The United States improved to 2-0-0-0 in Group C with a 6-3 win against Team Denmark on Saturday while Team Germany (1-0-1-0) fell to Team Latvia, 4-3. It sets up all sorts of possibilities on Sunday, with Germany and Latvia each still alive to win the group, but for the USA it’s win and in.

If the U.S. loses in regulation to Germany, the winner of the group would depend on how Team Latvia does against Denmark and then it could come down to goal differential. The U.S. would rather not have it come to that.

The United States is also in the running for the No. 1 seed, but would need to win in regulation by multiple goals and hope Canada loses or struggles with Team France on Sunday (10:40 a.m. ET; Peacock, USA, ICI Télé, CBC Gem, RDS2, CBC).

That is all noise to forward Brady Tkachuk.

“To be honest, I could care less,” he said after scoring his second goal in as many games Saturday. “It’s all about the three points at the end of the day.”