Here’s how to watch USA men’s hockey quarterfinals at the Olympics

MILAN, Metropolitan City of Milan — The final week of competition is well underway at the Winter Olympics, with some Team USA superstars poised to medal in Wednesday’s events.

The U.S. men’s hockey team will head into the quarterfinals on Wednesday, looking to enter the gold medal game on Sunday.

This is the first time in 12 years that NHL players have been allowed to play in the Winter Games, making the feat even more special.

The path to a possible — OK, probable — men’s Olympic hockey final between Canada and the United States continues when the two powerhouses play their quarterfinals.

Top-seeded Canada will play Czechia, while the U.S. plays Sweden.

The U.S. vs. Sweden game will get underway at 3:10 p.m. ET. Viewers around the world can watch on official broadcasters, including NBC and streaming on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms.

The Canada vs. Czechia game will start at 10:40 a.m. ET and will air on USA Network.

The semifinals are on Friday, and the gold-medal game is on Sunday.

Facing Latvia, Denmark and Germany in the preliminary round allowed U.S. coach Mike Sullivan to hone in on his optimal lineup and Connor Hellebuyck to show why he’s the clear-cut starting goaltender. Winning 5-1, 6-3 and 5-1 means the Americans have not tested as much as some other top contenders so far.

That changes against Sweden, which had to play in the qualification round and beat Latvia just to get to this stage.

“As this tournament starts to move forward, the stakes get higher,” Sullivan said. “The competition gets stiffer, and I think our guys are excited for that challenge.”

The Swedes are only seeded seventh because they finished third in their group behind Finland and Slovakia based on a goal differential tiebreaker from one they allowed in the final minute of a 5-3 victory in their round-robin finale. Matthew Tkachuk rightfully called them “one of the powerhouses in the world,” so the difficulty level is ratcheting up big time for him and his U.S. teammates.

“We haven’t seen them yet in this tournament, but we’re very well aware of the personnel group that they have,” Sullivan said.

Mikaela Shiffrin, to many the greatest Alpine skier of all time, arrived in Cortina d’Ampezzo seeking redemption after a nightmarish time at the Beijing Games in 2022, when she didn’t win a medal in six events — failing to even finish in three of them.

It hasn’t gone according to plan, though. In the team combined, the American placed 15th in the slalom portion of the event and dropped her and Breezy Johnson from first to fourth place, and then finished in 11th place in the giant slalom.

Yet Shiffrin expressed satisfaction with how she felt on the snow and is clearly trying to adopt a positive outlook on being at the Olympics, whether she wins or loses.

However, she is the favorite in the slalom, which wraps up the women’s racing program, and it would sting if she went nine straight Olympic events without a podium finish. That dates back to Pyeongchang in 2018.

Shiffrin competes on Wednesday, with the first run at 4 a.m. ET and the final run at 7:30 a.m. ET. Viewers around the world can watch on official broadcasters, including NBC and streaming on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms.

Up in Livigno, the men’s snowboarding slopestyle final takes place, giving Canadian Mark McMorris a chance to finally win an Olympic gold medal. He has won bronze in his last three appearances.

Also in the lineup are Americans Red Gerard, the 2018 champion, and 17-year-old Ollie Martin.

McMorris suffered a concussion in a nasty fall during training last week but recovered in time to compete in slopestyle, where he finished third in qualifying.

The men’s snowboard slopestyle event will start at 5:20 a.m. ET.  Viewers around the world can watch on official broadcasters, including NBC and streaming on Peacock and NBC Olympics platforms.

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