TAMPERE, Finland – The U.S. Men’s National Team will face France here at Nokia Arena tonight (May 21) at 8:20 p.m. local/1:20 p.m. in its sixth of seven preliminary round games in the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship. All U.S. contests in the world championship can be seen live in the U.S. on NHL Network.

The game will complete a back-to-back for Team USA, which got by Denmark, 3-0, yesterday (May 20). Team USA also played back-to-back games on May 14 and 15 with a 7-1 win over Hungary and 3-2 triumph against Germany.

The U.S. is 5-0 in the tournament and is looking to become only the second American team ever to win its first six games of a world championship. The 2018 squad is the lone team to accomplish that feat currently.

France, which is 0-1-2-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L), is coming off a 4-0 loss to Sweden yesterday evening (May 20).

The U.S. and France last played in the world championship back in 2019 with Team USA skating to a 7-1 preliminary round victory. The two teams are meeting for the 12th time ever in the tournament with the U.S.  having won all but one of the previous games.

Rocco Grimaldi is Team USA’s leading point-getter through five games with seven points, including three goals, while Alex Tuch has six points (4G, 2A) and Lane Hutson (1G, 3A) and T.J. Tynan (4A) are next with four points each.

In goal, the U.S. has two of the tournament’s top netminders. Casey DeSmith is 3-0 with a 1.00 goals against average and .962 save percentage, while Cal Peterson is 2-0 (1.00, .939).

Team USA enters play today at the top of Group A with 15 points, followed by Sweden (14), Finland (13), Denmark (8), Germany (6), France (4), Hungary (2) and Austria (1). The U.S. has already clinched a spot in the tournament quarterfinals, which is earned by finishing in the top four of the group. In Group B, Switzerland has the lead with 15 points, followed by Czechia (13), Canada (11), Latvia (11), Slovakia (5), Kazakhstan (4), Norway (4) and Slovenia (0).