MILAN — USA goes into the quarterfinals of the men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Winter Olympics with a distinct advantage. Two, actually.
The Americans are well rested after having two days between the preliminary round and the games on Feb. 18, which will decide who plays in the semifinals. But they’re also used to the 9:10 p.m. Italy time starts, which normally in the NHL would be around when the third period begins.
‘We just went through a stretch where we played three games in four nights,’ coach Mike Sullivan said. ‘We had a nine o’clock game every night. So guys weren’t getting to sleep very early. But I thought the guys played extremely hard. I thought the last game was our best against Germany, certainly our most complete on both sides of the puck. That’s the game that we’re trying to get to more consistently, and that’s the game you’re going to need to get to have success moving forward when the competition gets stiffer.’
Watch Olympic men’s hockey on Peacock
The competition doesn’t get any stiffer than win or go home. To open the day’s slate, Slovakia knocked off Germany 6-2. Still to come: USA plays Sweden, Canada plays Czechia, and Finland plays Switzerland.
There haven’t been any upsets so far, but Czechia hopes to change that despite losing to Canada 5-0 in its opener.
‘We let them win the first one because we knew that we’re not going to win two in a row against Canada,’ Martin Necas, who plays for the Colorado Avalanche, said jokingly.
Follow along for Olympic men’s hockey quarterfinal action as teams either win or go home:
Slovakia 6, Germany 2
The Germans, confident they were hitting their stride, stumbled instead, losing to plucky Slovakia, who went from group winner to Olympic semifinalist. The Slovakians, well-rested from having two days between games, made it 1-0 in the first period on a goal from Pavol Regenda. Slovakia really took over in the second period, with goals from Milos Kelemen and Oliver Okuliar 33 seconds apart early in the second period, prompting Germany to take a timeout.
Dalibor Dvorsky furthered the damage to 4-0 before Lukas Reichel put Germany on the board.
Regenda scored again in the third period, and Frederik Tiffels edged Germany within three goals with 11 minutes to play. Tomas Tatar put his Slovaks back up by four with an empty-net goal with 3:27 to play.
The Germans looked tired from having played the previous day, needing to advance to the quarterfinals by beating France in a qualification game.
Olympic men’s hockey scores and schedule today
All times Eastern and accurate as of Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, at 5:36 p.m.
Slovakia 6, Germany 2
10:40 a.m. – Canada vs. Czechia, quarterfinals on USA, Peacock
12:10 p.m. – Finland vs. Switzerland, quarterfinals on Peacock
3:10 p.m. – USA vs. Sweden, quarterfinals on NBC, Peacock
Where to watch Olympic men’s hockey
How the Olympics men’s hockey tournament works
The 12 teams are divided into three groups. They are:
Group A: Canada, Switzerland, Czechia, France
Group B: Finland, Sweden, Slovakia, Italy
Group C: USA, Germany, Latvia, Denmark
Teams play one game each against the other three teams in their group. Countries get three points for a regulation win, two for an overtime win, one for an overtime/shootout loss and zero for a regulation loss.
After the preliminary round is complete, teams are seeded 1 through 12 under the following criteria:
Higher position in the group
Higher number of points
Better goal difference
Higher number of goals scored for
Better IIHF world ranking
The top four teams (group winners and best second-place team) get a bye to the quarterfinals. Teams 5-12 play in a qualifying round, with the winners going to the quarterfinals.
Playoff qualification games are on Feb. 17, quarterfinals are Feb. 18 and semifinals are Feb. 20.
The bronze medal game is Feb. 21 and the gold medal game is Sunday, Feb. 22.