The team in red, white and blue now has the easiest path to gold.
By Stephen Whyno BEIJING — The team in red, white and blue now has the easiest path to gold. The young United States men’s hockey team held on to beat Germany 3-2 on Sunday night, finishing the preliminary round unbeaten and clinching the top seed in the knockout round at the Olympics. The Americans move directly into the quarterfinals and next play the winner of the Germany-Slovakia game from the qualification round. “About all we could accomplish up to this point, we’ve done it,” coach David Quinn said. “There’s a swagger to us, and there’s a believability that’s gone here over the last week and it’s put us in this position, but we haven’t really accomplished anything that we want to accomplish.” U.S. players and coaches set a goal of winning the group. They’ve done that and more as the only team in the tournament to win all three of its games in regulation. The third was tougher than expected against the reigning silver medalists, who held on to beat China two nights after the U.S. blew out the host country 8-0. Even more than the Americans’ showdown against Canada, tensions boiled over between the U.S. and Germany with shouting from bench to bench and more than the usual amount of post-whistle scrums. Much like the Canada game, the Americans stuck it out when Germany ratcheted up the physicality and nastiness and showed they won’t get bullied on the ice. “The biggest thing for us is just proving that teams aren’t going to be able to run us out of the rink physically,” captain Andy Miele said. “We’re a young team, but we’re fast, we’re skilled and no one’s going to slow us down. We’re going to keep coming at you.
