It was not pretty in the early going, but the U.S. hockey team picked up the pace and showed why it is a favorite to play for a gold medal.

After trailing 2-1 through the first period, the Americans dominated on offense to take a 6-3 victory over Denmark Saturday in the Milan Cortina Olympic Games.

The Americans scored three unanswered goals to open the second period, with 4 Nations cult hero Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators), Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights) and Noah Hanifin (Vegas Golden Knights) finding the back of the net. 

Denmark, though, was not going out without a fight, putting a third goal past Jeremy Swayman (Boston Bruins) before the horn sounded.

It was false hope for them, however, because Jake Guentzel (Tampa Bay Lighting) scored, and Jack Hughes (New Jersey Devils) added another for good measure late in the third.

Both sets of brothers on the team — Brady and Matthew Tkachuk and Jack and Quinn Hughes — each had a point in the contest. Fourteen players had points for the Americans with a different goal scorer each time the lamp was lit.

AMERICANS ATTENDING OLYMPICS URGED TO ‘EXERCISE CAUTION’ AFTER ITALIAN RAILWAYS HIT BY SUSPECTED ‘SABOTAGE’

Swayman struggled early on, especially as Denmark’s second goal was scored from nearly center ice, but he found his footing in the final two periods. Connor Hellebuyck (Winnipeg Jets) got the start in the first game, and Jake Oettinger (Dallas Stars) will likely be in the crease in their next game.

The Americans had 47 shots on goal compared to Denmark’s 21.

The U.S. ends preliminary play Sunday with a game against Germany at 3:10 p.m. ET. The Americans will once again be heavy favorites, and a victory will put them into the knockout stage.

The Americans can also go right to the knockout stage with an overtime loss. With a regulation loss, their fate would be determined by Canada’s game against France and point differentials with Slovakia, Finland and Sweden.

But as a heavy favorite against a German team with just eight NHL players, the U.S. may not need to worry.

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Lakers star Luka Doncic missed their last four games because of a strained left hamstring, but he plans to play in the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday at the Intuit Dome.

Doncic, who was injured when the Lakers played the Philadelphia 76ers 1½ weeks ago, worked out before L.A. played the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday at Crypto.com Arena and has played some five-on-five recently.

Doncic was the leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game, which will be his sixth.

“I feel pretty good,” Doncic said Saturday during his media season. “You know, I’ve been working to get back. Obviously [I] wanted to play the last game, but it wasn’t possible. I was almost there, so I think I’ll play a little bit.”

His Lakers teammate, LeBron James, was selected as a Western Conference reserve by the coaches, his first time in 21 years not being chosen a starter. James, who didn’t attend the media sessions on Saturday but will talk before the game Sunday, extended his NBA record All-Star selections to 22 in a row.

Doncic, who will play for Team World, was jokingly asked that if he does play will he try to dunk on James, who will be on Team USA Stripes.

“No, I will not try to dunk on LeBron,” Doncic said, smiling.

This will be Doncic’s first time representing the Lakers as an All-Star. His other five came when he played for the Dallas Mavericks, who traded Doncic to the Lakers last February for Anthony Davis.

Doncic was asked about his emotions.

“Every All-Star, just blessed,” he said. “ I’m going to look back at it. I’m a six-time All-Star now, and not everybody can say they’re an All-Star. So just take everything into the moment and enjoy this.”

When the NBA coaches selected the All-Star reserves, Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard was not chosen despite playing some of the best basketball of his career.

But NBA commissioner Adam Silver added Leonard to the roster, allowing him to play in his seventh All-Star Game, which is being hosted in his home arena.

Leonard was asked at his media session on Saturday if not being initially selected was because of his role in the NBA’s investigation of the Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer over allegations that the team circumvented the salary cap by paying Leonard under the table through an endorsement deal with a company called Aspiration.

“I’m not sure,” said Leonard, who is eighth in the NBA in scoring at 27.9 points a game. “I don’t think Adam Silver would let something like that play into how a player is playing on the court, especially me. I’m not doing anything.”

Aspiration, which has since filed for bankruptcy, agreed to pay Leonard $28 million over four years. The Clippers have denied the allegations.

The NBA has a new format for the All-Star Game, “U.S. vs. the World.” It will be a round-robin tournament with four 12-minute games.

There are two U.S. teams. Leonard will be on the USA Stripes with some of the veterans uch as James and Kevin Durant.

Leonard was asked about his view of the new format.

“I can’t say I hate it or I love it, ‘cause I really don’t know what the situation is,” Leonard said. “I know it’s three teams and is it like a pickup game where we wait until somebody scores? But I’d rather it just be East and West and just go out there and compete and see what the outcome is. I don’t think no format can make you compete …”

Fans and media have complained that the players don’t play hard enough and don’t seem to care.

With Stephen Curry, James and Durant near the end of their careers, Durant was asked why the NBA saw the need to make improvements to the All-Star Game.

“I just feel like fans and media need something to complain about, and the All-Star Game don’t make them feel like they felt when they were kids,” Durant said. “They need something to complain about. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, to be honest — the All-Star Game, All-Star weekend. Just here to celebrate the game of basketball.

“People [are] still coming to celebrate the game of basketball. They’re coming to watch. People at home are complaining about the game and the intensity of it. I don’t think we’ll ever get past that, but to see everybody still here, showing up, doing their jobs, pushing the game forward through this weekend, you go around the city, it’s so much energy in the city, so many past greats. … I just think it’s way bigger than that this weekend. We can talk about who plays harder or the U.S. team versus the World.”

Tempers flared at an Olympic curling match between Canada and Sweden Friday with a profane insult being hurled after allegations of cheating were made. 

Canada beat Sweden 8-6, and Canadian third Marc Kennedy and Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson got into it after Eriksson accused Kennedy of an illegal procedure called double-touching stones after releasing them at the hog line.

Kennedy shouted, “I haven’t done it once. You can f— off,” at Eriksson.

Eriksson replied, “I’ll show you a video after the game. I’ll show you a video where it’s two meters over the hog line.”

Both sides appealed to the officials, but no results were changed.

Swedish team leader Fredrik Lindberg said in a statement, “At this point, the Swedish Olympic Committee will not seek an investigation regarding the events during Friday’s game,” according to The National Review. 

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Kennedy responded to the allegations after the match.

“I have a ton of respect for Oskar Eriksson,” he said. “He’s one of the best players to ever play. I just told him … I would never accuse you of cheating. I’ve been on tour for 25 years. He pulled a hog line official on us to make sure we weren’t double-touching. The hog line official was there for six ends, never said a thing and he’s still talking about it in the ninth end.

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“I don’t like being accused of cheating, so I told him what I thought of it.”

According to World Curling policy, a moving stone cannot be touched beyond the hog line, but it is not a violation if a thrower double-touches the rock before the line.

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