Sweden trips U.S. 6-3 for Group A top seed at world junior hockey tournament

The path to a third consecutive gold medal in the World Junior Championship presumably just became tougher for the United States.

Behind two goals each from Eddie Genborg and Lucas Petterson, Sweden defeated Team USA 6-3 on Wednesday, Dec. 31, at Grand Casino Arena, winning Group A with a 4-0 record and 12 points. Sweden will face Latvia, the fourth-place finisher in Group B, in the quarterfinals at 1 p.m. Jan. 2 in St. Paul.

The United States, which went 3-1 and finished second in Group A, will play Finland, the third-place team from Group B, in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Jan. 2 in St. Paul.

Had the U.S. won Group A, a matchup against Group B champ Canada couldn’t have happened until the tournament final. Now the Americans could meet Canada in the semifinals.

“This is a crazy tournament, and you have to park [the loss] quickly, get to the next game and get momentum,” U.S. coach Bob Motzko said. “We have to park this one, get it out of our system and get back to what we’ve been doing.”

Chase Reid, Will Zellers and Teddy Stiga scored goals for Team USA, which trailed 1-0 after one period and 5-2 after two in front of 18,618.

Goalie Brady Knowling, a 17-year-old making his first start in the under-20 tournament, gave up five goals on 28 shots through two periods. Nick Kempf worked the third period, stopping 14 of 15 shots.

“I liked our battle at times, for sure,” said U.S. captain Brodie Ziemer, a Gophers forward from Chaska. “We didn’t give up, we competed, we played hard and played the right way. Just got to do it for a full 60 minutes.”

Team USA played without injured defenseman Cole Hutson and injured forward Max Plante. Motzko said there’s a good chance Hutson could return for the quarterfinals but said “probably not” when asked about Plante’s availability.

Team USA opened group play with victories over Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia before facing a talented Swedish team bent on avenging a 6-2 loss to the United States in the 2024 gold medal game in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Sweden took a 1-0 lead at 9:17 when Casper Juustovaara’s cross-ice pass intended for Milton caromed off U.S. defenseman Logan Hensler’s skate and past Knowling. Genborg made it 2-0 on a power play 1:35 into the second period, and Pettersson blasted a slapshot past Knowling on a rush into the U.S. zone at 6:01 for a 3-0 lead.

“We have to manage the puck better because our speed was very good, but it was on display the other way tonight because of our turnovers,” Motzko said.

The United States got its second power play at 11:00 of the second when Harenstam was called for embellishment for diving to the ice when a U.S. player skated by his net. The Americans pressed for another goal but ended up surrendering a shorthanded marker when Sweden intercepted Cole Eiserman’s drop pass and went on a rush with Pettersson beating Knowling for a 4-1 lead at 12:44.

After Sweden increased the lead to 5-1, Zellers popped home a rebound of a Ziemer shot past Harenstam.

In the third, Stiga redirected Mooney’s pass for a power-play goal to cut the lead to 5-3 at 2:14.

Urged on by a raucous crowd, Team USA killed off all but one second of a lengthy 5-on-3 power play for Sweden before Ivar Stenberg scored to make it 6-3.

“Just having that crowd, it really gives you good energy,” Mooney said. “Having them on your side is awesome.”

“Now the tournament starts,” he said.

Canada 7, Finland 4: Cole Beaudoin and Brady Martin each scored two goals as Canada defeated Finland to clinch the Group B title before 7,572 at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Zayne Parekh, Tij Ignila and Sam O’Reilly also scored for Canada, which will play Slovakia in the Jan. 2 quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. at Mariucci.

Julius Miettinen, Oliver Suvanto, Lasse Boelius and Roope Vesterinen scored for Finland, which will play the United States in the quarterfinals.

Switzerland 3, Slovakia 2: Loris Wey and Mike Aeschlimann scored power-play goals 22 seconds apart in the first period, and Switzerland held on to edge Slovakia to clinch third place in Group A at Grand Casino Arena.

Czechia 4, Latvia 2: Tomas Poletin and Adam Jiricek scored 1:15 apart in the first period as Czechia defeated Latvia in Group B at Mariucci.