The USA men’s hockey team narrowly avoided disaster during its clash against Germany in Milan on Sunday.
The Americans faced Leon Draisaitl and co. in the final game of the preliminary round-robin of the Winter Olympics with a narrow chance of stealing the No 1 seed from Canada.
However, captain Auston Matthews, 28, and Jack Hughes, 24, almost made that task much more challenging when they took each other out on the ice.
In a barely believable moment, the Toronto Maple Leafs star and New Jersey Devils forward clashed with each other in a high-speed collision.
The two forwards appeared to each be chasing down a drop pass from defender Quinn Hughes – Jack’s older brother. With their focus locked in on the puck, they collided, sending each other tumbling to the ice.
To make the situation more bizarre, the incident occurred on a power play in the Americans’ own end with the US on a man advantage.
The USA narrowly avoided a scare when Auston Matthews (left) and Jack Hughes collided
The pair (far left) skated into one another at high speed during a US power play
Hughes appeared slightly shaken as he took a few seconds to get back to his skates, while Matthews also took a moment to reset. Thankfully for the US, neither player appeared to be injured.
The USA captain was later spotted exchanging words with his younger teammate on the American bench after they escaped the incident without giving up a goal or causing harm.
Hockey fans were stunned at the moment as they took to social media to mock the two NHL stars.
‘Jack Hughes and Auston Matthews, Olympic hockey players OR figure skating ice duos? the world may never know,’ one fan quipped on X.
‘Hey Jack Hughes and Auston Matthews, you’re not supposed to take out your own team,’ another sarcastic viewer wrote.
A third said: ‘It’s been 10 minutes and I haven’t stopped laughing about the Auston Matthews Jack Hughes collision.’
‘Jack Hughes and Auston Matthews what the hell was that,’ another gobsmacked viewer questioned.
Matthews, who was wearing the ‘C’ on his jersey just as he was in the 4 Nations 12 months ago, managed to redeem himself later in the game when he doubled the USA’s lead just minutes into the second period.
US captain Matthews managed to redeem himself with two goals later in the game
The Americans finished with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Germany on Sunday night
He converted on another American power play – his second power play goal of the tournament – when he forced a rebound home.
He struck again with 13 minutes remaining in the game to put the Americans up 5-0. Matthews tipped a pass from Jake Sanderson right up under the crossbar to grab his second of the night.
The USA wrapped up the Olympic preliminary stage with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Germany – an improvement on their earlier shaky 6-3 win over Denmark.
However, the Americans’ unbeaten start to the Olympics wasn’t enough to clinch the No 1 seed heading into the knockout round, with the USA having to settle for the second seed.
Canada put such a beatdown on France, winning 10-2, that the US would have had to run up the score and beat Germany by 10 goals to pass the tournament favorite. The North American rivals cannot meet until the gold medal game.
They have to get there first. The US is set to face the winner of the qualification round game Tuesday between Sweden and Latvia, while Canada plays Czechia or Denmark in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.