US to face Slovakia in Olympic men’s hockey quarterfinals
Associated PressBEIJING — Miroslav and Michaela Knies will have big smiles on their faces when their son Matt plays for the United States against Slovakia at the Olympics. “It’ll be a moment I won’t forget for a long time,” said Knies, who also played for the U.S. against Slovakia in the world junior championship in December. It’s going to be an exciting game.” Slovakia earned a spot in the quarterfinals by beating Germany 4-0, knocking the reigning silver medalists out of the men’s hockey tournament in the qualification round. “We certainly taking a look at what Slovakia does and if there’s anything we haven’t seen before, certainly we’ll talk about it, make the adjustments, but at the end of the day, we want to keep rolling through and improving and tightening up the areas we need to tighten up on and keep doing the things we’re doing well more consistently.” U.S. forward Brendan Brisson said he and his teammates haven’t felt better since getting to Beijing, thanks to a day off Monday and the confidence that’s going strong for the youngest team in the tournament. You certainly don’t want to get in a battle with that U.S. team where you’re chasing them around the ice because they’re just too quick.” Young Slovakia players Juraj Slafkovsky and Simon Nemec were also part of the world juniors game against the Americans before that tournament was abruptly canceled out of COVID-19 fears.