It’s win or go home for Team USA in World Junior Championship quarterfinals against Finland

The United States and Finland engaged in a memorable battle for the 2025 World Junior Championship, with the Americans winning the under-20 hockey tournament with a 4-3 overtime triumph on Teddy Stiga’s goal 8:04 into the extra session in Ottawa.

A year later, Team USA and Finland will meet again, this time in a quarterfinal matchup at 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 2, at Grand Casino Arena. The winner advances to the semifinals and will play for a medal. The loser will go home empty-handed.

“Now the tournament starts,” U.S. coach Bob Motzko said.

That the Americans and Finns are facing each other in the first round of single-elimination play can be traced to their results on Dec. 31. Two-time defending champion Team USA lost 6-3 to Sweden in a game that decided the Group A champ, while Finland needed a victory over Canada to claim Group B but lost 7-4 and fell to third in the group behind the Canadians and the Czech Republic.

The other quarterfinal matchups on Jan. 2 are Sweden vs. Latvia at 1 p.m. at Grand Casino Arena, and the Czech Republic vs. Switzerland at 3:30 p.m. and Canada vs. Slovakia at 7:30 p.m., both at 3M Arena at Mariucci. Semifinals are Sunday, Jan. 4, and the final is Jan. 5, both at Grand Casino Arena.

Team USA’s loss and Canada’s victory made it impossible for the border rivals to meet in the gold medal game.

The United States went 3-1 in group play but gave up 11 goals over the final two games. Motzko started 17-year-old Brady Knowling against Sweden, and he gave up five goals on 28 shots over two periods. He was replaced in the third period by Nick Kempf, who gave up a goal on Sweden’s 5-on-3 power play but stopped 14 of 15 shots. In a 6-5 victory over Slovakia, Caleb Heil started, giving up five goals on 31 shots.

No matter the goalie, Motzko emphasized that the Americans must eliminate their mistakes that have put their goalies in difficult situations.

“We made some mistakes against a team with an enormous amount of talent that you can’t make. And then we were chasing the game,’’ Motzko said after the loss to Sweden. “… If we were going to have a game that we needed to get it out of our system or learn from it, I’d sure rather have it happen right now.’’

Team USA lost 4-3 to Finland in group play last year, and returning players from the 2025 team see that experience as important.

“You don’t want to lose, but it’s not the end of the world,” said U.S. captain Brodie Ziemer, a Gophers forward from Chaska. “You learn from it, move on and get ready for the quarters.’’

U.S. forward Will Zellers of Maple Grove is tied for the tournament lead with five goals. Ziemer has been key with his all-around game, and he leads team with four assists.

Defenseman Cole Hutson practiced Thursday and could return after missing two games because of an injury, but Max Plante, the leading scorer in college hockey for Minnesota Duluth, is day-to-day and won’t play Friday because of an upper-body injury. Both were on last year’s gold medal team, and Hutson runs the American power play.

The two group winners, Canada and Sweden, are the only teams that have scored 20 or more goals through four group games. The Canadians have outscored opponents 25-11, while the Swedes had a 21-8 margin.

Three players for Canada — Zayne Parekh, Gavin McKenna and Michael Hage — have a tournament-high eight points, and Brady Martin has seven.

Canada is seeking its record 21st title all time and is trying to end a two-year medal drought.

“It’s huge for us to get that win,” said Martin, who had two goals against Finland. “For us to move into the quarters being the first seed is huge.”