Courtesy of USA Hockey

The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team (3–0) defeated Germany (1–2) by a score of 3–2 while Brian O’Neill ’12 notched his third point of the tournament with an assist in the first period.

The game was the tightest of the tournament for the U.S., after the team trounced China 8–0 and defeated northern rival Canada 4–2.

“I think it proves that we can win these close games, and down the road that’s going to be big for us. We have a lot of young guys, but we’re a mature team,” U.S. forward Nathan Smith said to ESPN. “Our leadership group of older guys do a really good job of getting the younger guys going for games.”

The contributions of the two Yalies on the team, O’Neill and Kenny Agostino ’14, were evident in the game against Germany. O’Neill had his second assist of the tournament, while Agostino continued his unfortunate string of penalties with a double-major for high-sticking. Agostino currently leads the U.S. in penalty minutes with eight minutes across the three games.

The win over Germany means the U.S. will win Group A and also earn a bye into the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament.

The Olympic tournament begins with teams split into three groups competing in a round-robin format. Following that, the winner of each group, along with the highest-ranked second place team, earns a bye into the quarterfinals. The remaining teams face off in the qualifying round for a chance to reach the quarterfinals.

The U.S. enters the single-elimination playoffs as one of two teams with a perfect record in the round-robins. Finland also has three wins, and the last of those came in overtime against Sweden. 

The team will now get to rest, scout out its potential opponents and get valuable practice time to continue building chemistry. Building chemistry will be crucial, as the team’s roster was only announced less than a month before the 2022 Games’ opening ceremony. 

“We’ve really become a team in a short period of time,” head coach David Quinn said to NY Post. “You can feel it in the locker room, you can feel it around the village. These guys genuinely like each other and care for each other. I got to give a ton of credit to our older players. They really embraced the responsibility. It’s a really good mix and a great group to be around.”

Ahead of the next U.S. game, Quinn will need to weigh who will start in net. Against Germany, 19-year old Boston University goalie Drew Commesso got his second start of the tournament after shutting out China in the team’s first game with 29 saves. Commesso had another strong showing against Germany with 24 saves.

However, against Canada, former University of Michigan standout Strauss Mann made 35 saves and led the Americans to victory over their rivals. After allowing an early goal 84 seconds in, Mann played lights out and only allowed one more puck past him for the rest of the game. 

“There’s a lot of things that go wrong as a goalie and if you focus on those, you’re bound to let more happen,” Mann said about allowing the early goal against Canada. “But if you just focus on the present moment and keep competing, a lot of good things will happen.”

The U.S. will play again in Beijing on Tuesday, Feb. 15 at 11:10 p.m. ET, or Wednesday at 12:10 p.m. ET against either Slovakia or Germany.