Hockey

Their rendezvous may be on Valentine’s Day, but its nature looks likely to be anything but romantic: Denmark and the US, their relations frostier than they have been for decades, are due to face each other in ice hockey next month.

A week into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy, the Danish Lions are scheduled to play Team USA in a preliminary round game at Milan’s Santagiulia ice hockey arena on 14 February, according to the official programme.

The stakes have also been raised by the inclusion of players from North America’s National Hockey League (NHL) at the Games for the first time since 2014, meaning many of the world’s best players – including several from Denmark – will be competing.

The Danish player Nikolaj Ehlers, who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL, said it was “a proud moment. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” His compatriot Mads Søgaard from the Ottawa Senators told the NHL website he was “proud to represent my home country”.