USA Beats Germany, Updated Hockey World Championship 2026 Results Ahead of KO Bracket

Julia StumbaughMay 20, 2026

Team USA celebrated Matthew Tkachuk's 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships debut with a shootout win over Germany.

A late tying goal from Tommy Novak and a game-winning shootout goal from Ryan Leonard made the difference Wednesday in a 4-3 preliminary-round shootout victory.

The victory will allow the United States to leapfrog Hungary and climb back into the final knockout-round spot in Group A.

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Here's a look at Wednesday's scores and highlights as well as an updated bracket.

Wednesday Scores

Switzerland def. Austria, 9-0

Czechia def. Italy, 3-1

United States def. Germany, 4-3 (SO)

Sweden def. Slovenia, 6-0

Updated Bracket (record, points, goal differential)

Group A

Switzerland (4-0, 12 points, +18 GD)
Finland (3-0, 9 points, +9 GD)
Austria (3-1, 9 points, -2 GD)
United States (2-2 with one OTW, 5 points, -1 GD)
Hungary (1-2, 3 points, 0 GD)
Latvia (1-2, 3 points, -2 GD)
Germany (0-4 with one OTL, 1 point, -8 GD)
Great Britain (0-3, 0 points, -12 GD)

Group B

Czechia (3-1 with one OTL, 10 points, +5 GD)
Canada (3-0, 9 points, +12 GD)
Slovakia (3-0 with one OTW, 8 points, +5 GD)
Norway (2-1, 6 points, +7 GD)
Sweden (2-2, 6 points, +7 GD)
Slovenia (1-3 with one OTW and one OTL, 3 points, -10 GD)
Denmark (0-3, 3 points, -11 GD)
Italy (0-4, 3 points, -15 GD)

Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win and one for an overtime loss. The top four teams in each bracket after the preliminary round will advance to the quarterfinals. Full standings can be found at IIHF.com.

Wednesday Highlights

Switzerland 9, Austria 0

Austria was unable to overcome an early onslaught by the home team.

Timo Meier and Nico Hischier found the back of the net as Switzerland scored four times in a span of nine minutes in the first period.

Hischier finished the blowout with two goals as goaltender Leonardo Genoni recorded a 20-save shutout to help the Swiss team remain undefeated.

The win marked Genoni's 13th shutout at IIHF Worlds, marking an all-time tournament record.

The defeat marked the first loss of the tournament for Austria and the nation's biggest defeat to Switzerland at the tournament since 1949.

Czechia 3, Italy 1

Italy got off to its best start of the tournament thanks to an early goal from Nick Saracino.

That tally, combined with stellar play from Italian netminder Damian Clara, allowed Italy to enter the third period with a lead over Czechia for the first time in tournament history.

Clara recorded 39 saves through two periods to keep Italy in the lead for most of the game.

Czechia finally broke through thanks to a three-goal third period to claim the win.

The Czechs won 3-1 despite 55 saves from Clara after outshooting Italy 58-15.

Sweden 6, Slovenia 0

Lucas Raymond opened scoring Wednesday with the first of six straight goals in a dominant win for Sweden.

Raymond and Jacob de la Rose both recorded multiple goals in the win, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson led his team with three assists.

Sweden outshot Slovenia 45-16 as goaltender Arvid Soderblom recorded the shutout.

Despite the blowout, Sweden finished the day one goal shy of leapfrogging Norway for the fourth seed in Group B.

United States 4, Germany 3 (SO)

Moritz Seider got Germany on the board by scoring on American goaltender Devin Cooley in the first minute of play.

The United States bounced back with consecutive goals from Isaac Howard in the first and Max Sasson in the second to regain the lead.

Germany scored twice in a span of three minutes to retake the lead midway through the second period.

The Germans were six minutes away from a regulation win when Tommy Novak scored to tie the game.

Neither team scored in overtime. Germany's Joshua Samanski started out the shootout by beating Cooley, but Matt Coronato scored to extend the shootout before Leonard beat Philipp Grubauer to seal Team USA's win.

IIHF Worlds action continues Thursday with another four-game slate, starting at 10:20 a.m. ET as Finland takes on Latvia and Canada faces Norway.

The afternoon slate features 2:20 p.m. ET matchups between Great Britain and Switzerland as well as Slovakia and Denmark.