USA Hockey China Beijing 2022
BEIJING (AP) – Do not watch now, but the young US hockey team can be fun to watch the Olympics.
Sean Farrell had a hat trick and delivered one of the team’s two no-look assists when the Americans beat China 8-0 on Thursday night in the host country’s Olympic men’s hockey debut.
Farrell delivered his pass behind the net to Noah Cates and also scored the fourth, fifth and eighth US goals. Andy Miele delivered another no-look assist on Brian O’Neill’s goal, Minnesota center Ben Meyers took a backhander and Matty Beniers blinked with the offensive ability that made him the second pick in the NHL draft with his goal.
“We all got wet on our feet, scored many goals, dropped nothing,” said Brendan Brisson, who opened the scoring in powerplay in the middle of the first. “A good start, and we’ll just roll into Canada now.”
After a slow start, the young Americans’ speed and skill were shown and in the end, their overmatched opponents were worn out. The United States surpassed China 55-29.
“It was busy in my end, but it was to be expected,” said US-born goalkeeper Jeremy Smith, who kept it close in the first half of the game for China and finished with 47 saves. There was little he could do on Brisson’s goal or on Cate’s shot from the front in the second that made it 2-0.
Farrell’s no-look pass stood out as the highlight of a game full of them for the United States
“I knew one of us would be at the front, so I just threw that one,” said Farrell, who led the United States by five points. “Luckily, Catesy, it just ended up on his stick and he buried it, so it was a great little game of our line.”
Skating in front of about 1,000 Chinese fans, the home team consisted mostly of North American players who naturalized for the games hung tough before the Americans broke through three times in the second and four more times in the third.
“It’s a great experience,” said US-born China defender Jake Chelios, whose father Chris has a silver medal from the 2002 Olympics. in the Olympics. In recent years, this is the day we have worked for. ”
Boston University goalkeeper Drew Commesso was not tested much but was sharp when he needed to, and made 29 saves for the suspension. The 19-year-old became the youngest goalkeeper in the United States to play in the Olympics.
“There were some tough saves,” said United States coach David Quinn. “They did a good job getting out on the net. They are big bodies, they got pucks to the net quickly, so he had to fight his way through the traffic and I thought he did a really good job with it.
Seven of the eight U.S. goals were scored by a player who is currently in college.
“It says a lot about how good the NCAA is,” said Farrell, who plays for Harvard and is a prospect in the Montreal Canadiens. “I think when you step into a tournament like this with a lot of older guys, the college game prepared us all for it.”
The second goal came from O’Neill, the lone returnee from the 2018 tournament in Pyeongchang when the United States were knocked out in the quarterfinals in a penalty shootout loss to the Czech Republic.
Even without Auston Matthews, Patrick Kane and a generation of American elite talents, expectations are higher this time. Blowing out China reveals a bit about what the United States can do in the tournament, even if it was a strong start.
“It’s just getting used to the pace of the game, how physical the game was,” said Beniers. “It was more physical than many of us have probably played before. And (it showed) who we are as a team and what we are made of.”
The USA next meets arch-rival Canada, who beat defending silver medalist Germany 5-1 in their start of the tournament. That settlement is set for Saturday afternoon in Beijing before the United States meets Germany on Sunday night in their last preliminary round match.
In other action on Thursday, former NHL forwards Lucas Wallmark and Anton Lander scored goals to help Sweden beat Latvia 3-2, and Sakari Manninen scored a hat-trick on his 30th birthday in Finland’s 6-2 victory over Slovakia.
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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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