By Amy Tennery and Giulio Piovaccari
MILAN, Feb 16 (Reuters) – The United States are growing in confidence, captain Auston Matthews said on Sunday, as they advanced into the Olympic quarter-finals in Milan after clinching top spot in Group C with an easy 5-1 win over Germany.
Widely expected to challenge pre-tournament favourites Canada for the top of the men’s ice hockey podium, the U.S. took their time to hit their stride, with a surprisingly close contest against Denmark on Saturday, where they came back to win 6-3.
They had clearly worked out the kinks for their final preliminary meeting on Sunday, where the Americans tuned out the overwhelmingly German crowd at Santagiulia arena, outshooting their opponents 37-24 as Matthews recorded two goals.
“The confidence just continues to grow within our group. I think just the chemistry, just being comfortable with one another, playing with new guys that maybe you’re not as used to playing with,” said the Toronto Maple Leafs centre, who added an assist.
“Each game I think we’ve taken steps in the right direction.”
The Americans fell short of the top seeding from the preliminary stage, after Canada claimed it on goal difference, putting them into a potentially more difficult quarter-final draw.
The U.S. will face the winners of a qualification playoff between Latvia and Sweden, after the latter surprisingly failed to earn a bye to the quarter-finals despite being tipped as gold-medal contenders.
“The most important thing from our standpoint is we control what we can. We try to build our game. We put our best game on the ice and we’ll see where that takes us,” said head coach Mike Sullivan. “We have a lot of talent. And we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, Janina Nuno Rios and Giulio Piovaccari in MilanEditing by Toby Davis)
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