The Seattle Kraken’s top prospect Matty Beniers made his Olympics debut at the crack of dawn this morning when Team USA played China in their first game of the men’s ice hockey tournament. Beniers and University of Michigan teammate Brendan Brisson both made the cut this year once the NHL made the decision to withhold its players from the Olympics.
This isn’t the first time Beniers has suited up in the red, white and blue — he was a part of the team that brought home gold in the 2021 World Junior Championship, where he notched a goal and two assists over seven games. He’s looking to add Olympic gold to that trophy case now before heading back to Michigan to finish the season.
Beniers took just under three periods of play to get his first Olympic goal, and it came on a heck of a snipe from the right circle.
Beniers finished with one goal in 18 minutes of ice time and was second on the team with 5 shots on net. The men’s team next take the ice on Friday at 8pm PT against team Canada, which should be a real test of how well this roster is put together. That’s still just the preliminary rounds, though. The women’s tournament begins the quarterfinal knockout round tonight (Thursday, February 10th) at 8pm when Team USA takes on Czechia. Be sure to check out Sky’s primer on the women’s tournament ahead of this one, which should be a real fun game.
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