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Looking to rebound following a somewhat disastrous start to their 2018 Winter Olympics campaign, the USA men’s hockey team will take on Slovakia in an important Group B matchup.
In the United States, the game starts Thursday at 10:10 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on CNBC. If you don’t have cable or a cable log-in, you can watch a free live stream of CNBC on your computer, phone or streaming device by signing up for a free trial of one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
Hulu With Live TV: In addition to an extensive Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu now also offers a bundle of live TV channels, including CNBC. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial, and you can then watch the game live on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Hulu app.
DirecTV Now: CNBC is included in each of DirecTV Now’s four main channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial no matter what package you choose, plus you can get a free Amazon Fire TV if you prepay two months. Once signed up, you can watch the game live on your computer via the DirecTV Now website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the DirecTV Now app.
FuboTV: CNBC is included in the “Fubo Premier” channel package. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial, and you can then watch the game live on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the FuboTV app.
Sling TV: CNBC is included in the “Sling Blue” + “News Extra” channel packages. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial, and you can then watch the game live on your computer via the Sling TV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Sling TV app.
In addition to being able to watch the CNBC simulcast via the above streaming services, you can also watch the game live on your computer via NBCOlympics.com, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the NBC Sports app. To watch this stream, you’ll have a 30-minute free preview before needing to sign in to your TV provider, but you can use your Hulu, DirecTV Now, FuboTV, or Sling TV credentials to do that.
Preview
Going up against Slovenia in their Pyeongchang opener, the Americans appeared headed for a certain three points. They were clearly the more dominant team through the opening two periods, out-shooting Slovenia, 24-12, and leading on the scoreboard, 2-0, thanks to goals from Brian O’Neill and Jordan Greenway.
But the Americans collapsed in the third period, as they gave up a pair of goals to send the game to overtime and then proceeded to allow the winner just 38 seconds into the extra frame. They come away with one point due to the game going to overtime, and that one point could prove crucial down the line, but it was still nonetheless a disappointing result after looking the better team through the first 40 minutes.
“We started turning the puck over in our zone and they were getting chances and that led to some momentum for them,” said goaltender Ryan Zapolski. “We can’t give up those chances that we were giving up out of nothing there in the third. That really kills your momentum. And they scored a goal off one of them and from that point we were kind of on our heels.”
Nevertheless, there are positives to take away from the first two periods, and if the Americans can clean things up a little bit, there’s still time to recover moving forward.
“We’ll learn from this,” O’Neill said. “We haven’t played a whole lot of hockey as a team together. So it’s good for us to learn from that third period.”
Slovakia, meanwhile, enters this game coming off a 3-2 win in their opener against the Russians, which propelled them to the top of Group B. They fired 22 shots on goal, with Peter Olvecky, Martin Bakos and defenseman Peter Ceresnak finding the back of the night.
