The U.S. men’s hockey team, which rose to the Olympic tournament’s top seed after a perfect preliminary round, will return to the ice on Wednesday afternoon for a quarterfinal game against Slovakia.
The game, at National Indoor Stadium, could be a potent test for the Americans: Slovakia beat Germany, 4-0, on Tuesday. The United States managed to beat the same German team by a single goal on Sunday.
“We’re a really fast, skilled team, so the more that we can do to tighten up the smaller areas, like face-offs, those little things are so important to help you win the tight games that we’ll be playing in,” Sean Farrell, an American forward, said in an interview on Tuesday.