Team USA eliminated from World Junior Championship in 4-3 overtime loss to Finland

Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.

Tournament host Team USA was ousted from the world junior hockey tournament Friday, losing to Finland 4-3 in overtime in a quarterfinal game at Grand Casino Arena.

Arttu Valila snapped a shot from the right circle past the blocker of United States goalie Nick Kempf at 2:11 of the 10-minute, 3-on-3 overtime as Finland avenged its loss in last year’s title game.

The Finns go to the semifinals Sunday against either Canada or Slovakia.

The tournament suddenly ends for the Americans.

Team USA was the two-time defending champion and had the added advantage — or was it added pressure? — of playing host to the tournament.

An uncomfortable loss to Sweden on Wednesday made the U.S. the second seed in Group A and gave them a difficult quarterfinal matchup against Finland.

Finland scored two goals in a minute span of the third period to erase a 2-1 U.S. lead.

The Finns tied the score at 12:43 when Leo Tuuva tipped in a savvy pass from team captain Aron Kiviharju.

Only 55 seconds later, Tuuva centered from behind the net and Joona Saarelainen, uncovered, knocked it past Kempf.

But with 1:33 left and Kempf pulled for a sixth attacker, Ryker Lee tied it for the Americans. Will Zellers did the dirty work, lugging the puck down the middle, and James Hagens corraled it behind the net and fed Lee in front to send the game into overtime.

After a scoreless first period, defenseman Cole Hutson put the Americans ahead 1-0 35 seconds into the second period, wiring a 35-footer past Rimpinen from the right circle.

Heikki Ruohonen tied the game 1-1 four minutes after Hutson’s goal, beating Kempf from the left circle.

But Hutson set up a power-play goal for Team USA at 10:15, cutting to the bottom of the left circle and finding Cole Eiserman at the right dot. Eiserman’s one-timer flew past Rimpinen for a 2-1 lead that held up through the end of the second period.

Hutson, the leading scorer in last year’s tournament, became the top-scoring U.S. defenseman in tournament history with his 15th career point on the play.

Max Plante, college hockey’s leading scorer with Minnesota Duluth and a member of last year’s team, remained out for the U.S. because of an upper body injury. He took a high check in the opener against Germany.

Kiviharju was a fourth-round pick (122nd overall) in the 2024 draft by the Wild. The 5-10 defenseman fell in the draft because of a major knee injury, but has been in the past two world junior tournaments and wore the “C” both times.

Kempf had to make a couple of dandy saves in the first period after teammate miscues.

Cole McKinney turned the puck over at the blue line midway through the first, sending Ruohonen in alone, but Kempf stopped the backhanded attempt.

Atte Joki was alone in front minutes later after Hutson coughed up the puck in the corner, but Kempf stopped Joki as well.

In Friday’s other games:

Sweden 6, Latvia 3: The Group A top seed Swedes got a pair of goals from Anton Lundell and 13 saves from Love Harenstam to advance to the semifinals in front of 4,946 at Grand Casino Arena.

Bruno Osmanis had two assists for Latvia, the No. 4 seed in Group B.

Czech Republic 6, Switzerland 2: The Czechs, seeded second in Group B, advanced with a lopsided victory at 3M Arena at Mariucci.

Petr Sikora had a goal and set two others for the Czechs before 3,102 fans.