US beats Canada 4-1 to finish first in its group at world junior championship
United States' Cole Eiserman (91) celebrates after his goal against Canada with Zeev Buium, second from left, during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. Credit: AP/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA, Ontario — Danny Nelson scored the eventual game-winner in the third period and Trey Augustine made 38 saves, leading the United States to a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night and into the top spot in Group A at the world junior hockey championship.
Cole Hutson and Cole Eiserman each had a goal and an assist for the Americans. Ryan Leonard scored into an empty-net.
Bradly Nadeau scored for Canada, which allowed three goals on seven American power plays. Carter George stopped 24 shots.
Canada finished third in the pool and will face Czechia in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Americans face Switzerland.
“We’re not here to beat Canada tonight,” Augustine said. “We’re here to win a gold medal.”
The other matchups will have Group B winner Sweden take on Latvia, and Finland square off with Slovakia.
Canada and the U.S. played in the same building exactly 16 years to the day at the 2009 event, when John Tavares scored a memorable hat trick in Canada's 7-4 comeback victory on New Year’s Eve. The Canadians went on to win a fifth straight gold.
United States' Ryan Leonard (9) shoots against Canada during the third period of an IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game in Ottawa, Ontario on Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. Credit: AP/Sean Kilpatrick
“That’s something that’s storybook-like,” Eiserman said of beating Canada on home soil in the tournament’s marquee round-robin matchup. “Something that you’ve dreamt of.”
The teams met on New Year’s Eve for the first time since Dec. 31, 2016, when Canada picked up a 3-1 victory in Toronto. The U.S. got revenge less than a week later with a 5-4 shootout win in the title game in Montreal.
The Americans opened this under-20 tournament with a 10-4 win over Germany followed by a 5-1 victory over Latvia before losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime. Canada started with a 4-0 defeat of Finland before falling to Latvia 3-2 in a shootout and then rebounding to beat Germany 3-0.
The Canadians had a power play to start the third period while trailing 1-0 after Leonard took a roughing call at the end of the second. Nadeau blasted a one-timer for his first goal of the tournament off a feed from Brayden Yager at 1:58.
United States goaltender Trey Augustine (1) makes a save against Canada's Gavin McKenna (9) as United States' Drew Fortescue (5) defends during third-period IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament game action in Ottawa, Ontario, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. Credit: AP/Sean Kilpatrick
Nelson restored the U.S. lead at 4:22, taking a pass from Huston and beating George with his third goal.
The U.S. scored its third power-play goal of the game at 13:21 when Eiserman scored his second and put the game out of reach at 3-1 after a boarding penalty by Canada’s Easton Cowan.
Leonard scored into the empty net with 1:52 left in regulation to spark chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
George, who entered with consecutive shutouts that bookended the Latvia loss, saw his streak end at 133:02 on Tuesday’s first power play to silence the beer-chugging crowd at Canadian Tire Centre.
In the first period, Hutson took advantage of a failed Canadian clearing attempt on a U.S. power play and scored his second goal of the tournament.
Tempers flared later in the period when Canada’s Luca Pinelli and Zeev Buium of the U.S. went off for roughing and then jawed at each other in the penalty box.
Leonard hit another post for the Americans and Carson Rehkopf fired an effort that Augustine, who entered with an .879 save percentage in two starts, got enough of with his glove at the other end before tempers again boiled over at the buzzer.
In another Group A game, Finland beat Latvia 3-0 and finished second in the group.
Benjamin Rautiainen had a goal and an assist and Petteri Rimpenen earned the shutout for Finland, which finished with eight points.
Latvia finished fourth in the group and will face Sweden in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Jesse Kiiskinen and Kasper Halttunen also scored for Finland.
In Group B, Switzerland beat Kazakhstan 3-1 to secure a spot in the quarterfinal round.
Simon Meier and Ludvig Johnson each had a goal and an assist and Robin Antenen also scored for the Swiss, who entered without a point in three earlier games but moved past Kazakhstan into fourth spot in the group.
Kirill Lyapunov scored for Kazakhstan, which came in as fourth in the group after earning a point in a 5-4 overtime loss to Slovakia on Monday.
Kazakhstan faces Germany in a relegation game, with the loser demoted to the Division I Group A tournament for 2026.
In another Group B game, Sweden completed a sweep of its four preliminary round games, beating Czechia 4-2.
Herman Traff scored twice and Anton Wahlberg and Felix Unger Sorum also scored for Sweden.
Petr Sikora and Eduard Sale scored for Czechia, which finished second in the group with three wins and a loss.
