Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass./Washington Capitals) scored the shootout-winning goal to lift the U.S. Men’s National Team to a 4-3 victory over Germany in preliminary round play at the 2026 IIHF Men’s World Championship at Swiss Life Arena.
“We stuck with it and got an important win,” said Don Granato, head coach of the 2026 U.S. Men’s National Team. “We’ll continue to work on our game and build as we get set to face Latvia on Saturday.”
Moritz Seider opened the scoring 1:00 into the contest with a shot from the point that found its way through net-front traffic into the back of the net to give Germany a 1-0 lead.
At 14:33, Alex Steeves (Eden Prairie, Minn./Boston Bruins) forced a turnover in the offensive zone with a stick check, deflecting the puck toward Isaac Howard (Hudson, Wis./Bakersfield Condors), who capitalized from the slot to level the score at 1-1.
The U.S. took a 2-1 lead at 5:06 of the middle stanza when Max Sasson (Birmingham, Mich./Vancouver Canucks) picked up a loose puck in the slot and batted it past Germany netminder Philipp Grubauer. Howard and Ryan Ufko (Smithtown, N.Y./Milwaukee Admirals) registered assists on the play.
At the 9:53 mark of the second, Frederik Tiffels collected a rebound just outside the crease, spun toward the U.S. goal, and found twine with a wrist shot to knot the game up at two goals apiece.
With 7:18 to play in the middle frame, Marc Michaelis regained the lead for Germany after carrying the puck over the blue line and scoring on a wrister from the top of the left circle.
Team USA leveled the score with 5:47 to play in the third period when Declan Carlile (Hartland, Mich./Merrimack College) knocked the puck loose from a scrum at the edge of the crease onto the stick of Tommy Novak (River Falls, Wis./Pittsburgh Penguins), who directed it over the goal line. After no one scored in the five-minute, three-on-three overtime period, the game went to a five-round shootout.
Joshua Samansky scored on the opening attempt of the shootout to put Germany up 1-0 after the first round, followed by a series of denials from U.S. netminder Devin Cooley (Los Gatos, Calif./Calgary Flames) and Grubauer in the second and third rounds.
In round four, after another stop by Cooley, Matt Coronato (Greenlawn, N.Y./Calgary Flames) leveled the score for Team USA. In round five, Leonard capitalized with a left-to-right shot from the slot that beat Grubauer glove-side to win the shootout.
Cooley stopped 31 of 34 shots to earn the win in the net for Team USA.
The U.S. will next face Latvia in preliminary round play Saturday (May 23) at 6:20 a.m. ET. The game will be televised live on NHL Network, and will stream live on the NHL YouTube Channel.
NOTES: The U.S. outshot Germany 39-34 … Team USA and Germany were each 0-1 on the power play … Ryan Leonard was named U.S. Player of the Game.
