Friday is the fourth day of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is being held at Scandinavium and Frolundaborg in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Day 4 games
United States 4, Czechia 3 (SO) -- Isaac Howard (Tampa Bay Lightning) scored the first goal of the game and the decisive goal in the seventh round of the shootout for undefeated United States in a Group B game at Frolundaborg.
"I was pretty confident," Howard said of his shootout goal. "Right when I hopped over the boards I said I was going to score. I was just kind of coming in slow and seeing whatever [the goalie] gave me; I didn't have necessarily a move in mind, but I saw that kind of open up, so I took it. "
Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens) made 20 saves through overtime in his second straight start for the United States (2-1-0-0) before allowing a goal to Jiri Kulich (Buffalo Sabres) in the third round of the shootout.
Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers) scored in the fifth round of the shootout and Fowler denied Matyas Sapovaliv (Vegas Golden Knights) to force the sudden-death shootout.
The U.S. has won eight of the past nine games against Czechia at the World Juniors and is 14-3-1-8 with one tie all-time at the tournament.
"It was great hockey game," United States coach David Carle said. "One that we needed to be in to find some growth further into our game. Were we perfect? Obviously not, but I thought we got better today. It's an excellent hockey team on the other side that we faced and just really proud of our guys, especially third period."
Michael Hrabal (Arizona Coyotes) made 30 saves for Czechia (1-0-1-1), which lost 3-2 in overtime against Canada in the 2023 gold-medal game.
The United States was without goalie Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings) and defenseman Seamus Casey (New Jersey Devils), who are each dealing with an illness.
Howard gave the U.S. a 1-0 lead when he scored off a 2-on-1 with Frank Nazar III (Chicago Blackhawks) at 1:12 of the first period.
Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues) scored in the slot on a snap shot at 15:40 of the first to make it 1-1. Dominik Rymon won a race to the puck behind the U.S. net before sweeping it to Stancl.
Adam Bares scored on a snap shot from the bottom of the left face-off circle to give Czechia a 2-1 lead at 6:23 of the second period.
Will Smith (San Jose Sharks) scored on a quick shot at the right post off a pass from Ryan Leonard (Washington Capitals) for a 2-2 tie 8:04 into the second.
Robin Sapousek made it 3-2 for Czechia off a 2-on-1 down low with Eduard Sale (Seattle Kraken) at 11:47 of the second.
Ryan Chesley (Capitals) scored on a one-timer from the slot to make it 3-3, stepping into a pass from Lane Hutson (Montreal Canadiens) at 14:11 of the second.
"I saw my defense partner (Hutson) down low, he had a little opening to me through the seam and made an unbelievable pass and I was lucky to bury it," Chesley said.
Each country resumes preliminary-round play on Sunday. The U.S. faces Slovakia with first place in Group B on the line (6 a.m. ET) and Czechia plays Switzerland (11 a.m. ET).
Sweden 2, Canada 0 -- Hugo Havelid (2024 NHL Draft eligible) made 21 saves for his second shutout for Sweden in a Group A game at Scandinavium.
Theo Lindstein (St. Louis Blues) had two assists for Sweden (3-0-0-0), which has outscored its opposition 13-0 in three tournament games.
It was the first shutout against Canada at the World Juniors since United States goalie Spencer Knight (Florida Panthers) made 34 saves a 2-0 win in the gold-medal game of the 2021 WJC.
Mathis Rousseau (2024 draft eligible) made 22 saves for Canada (2-0-0-1), which is second in Group A.
"On both sides, the goaltending was excellent," Canada coach Alan Letang said. "I loved our first period. I thought we played really well; we handled the environment well. The crowd was incredible. The energy was in the building. … We got some looks on the power play in the third that we wanted to get, but we couldn't get it behind [Havelid]. "
Tom Willander (Vancouver Canucks) gave Sweden a 1-0 lead when he scored on a wrist shot from the high slot at 1:53 of the second period.
Noah Ostlund then extended the lead to 2-0 when he scored off his own rebound in the slot at 10:39 of the second.
Matthew Savoie (Buffalo Sabres) missed an opportunity to pull Canada within a goal when the puck rolled off his stick and wide of the right post after he attempted to go backhand-to-forehand on a breakaway at 12:29 of the second.
Canada was penalized for too many men while attempting to pull Rousseau for an extra skater at 17:54 of the third period and was forced to play all but the final four seconds of regulation on the penalty kill. Sweden held Canada to five shots on goal in the third.
Each county is scheduled to conclude their preliminary-round schedule on Sunday. Canada will face Germany (1:30 p.m. ET), and Sweden, which clinched the top seed in Group A, will play Finland (8:30 a.m. ET).
"If we thought we weren't going to get challenged in this tournament and we weren't going to face this adversity, we'd be pretty naïve," Letang said. "Our [group] is good, the other [group] is good, and you're going to run into these teams. We've got to take care of business against Germany and get everyone on board and everyone pushing in the right direction."
Slovakia 8, Norway 4 -- Servac Petrovsky (Minnesota Wild) and Dalibor Dvorsky (St. Louis Blues) each had two goals and two assists for undefeated Slovakia in a Group B game.
Peter Repcik (2024 NHL Draft eligible) had a goal and an assist, Filip Meser (Montreal Canadiens) and Maxim Strbak (Buffalo Sabres) each had three assists, and Adam Gajan (Chicago Blackhawks) made 22 saves for Slovakia (3-0-0-0), which has won its opening three games at the World Junior Championship for the first time.
Slovakia, which placed sixth at the 2023 WJC, has medaled twice at the tournament, winning bronze each time (1999, 2015).
Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, an A rated skater on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary players to watch list and projected first-round pick in the 2024 draft, had two goals and an assist for Norway (0-0-0-3), which is playing in the top division at the WJC for the first time since 2014.
Slovakia scored five goals, three on the power play, on 15 shots in the second period to take a 7-1 lead. Slovakia was 4-for-6 on the power play in the game.
Dvorsky scored a power-play goal on a backhand at 3:43 before Petrovsky scored consecutive goals in a span of 1:07 to give Slovakia a 5-1 lead less than four minutes later. Repcik made it 6-1 with a power-play goal at 12:30 and Luka Radivojevic pushed it to 7-1 with another goal on the man advantage at 14:08.
Radivojevic, a right-shot defenseman born in Edina, Minnesota, isn't eligible until the 2025 NHL Draft. The 16-year-old, who is the youngest player competing in the tournament, has played two games for Orebro of the Swedish Hockey League, the top professional men's league, this season.
Slovakia will next play the United States on Sunday (6 a.m. ET). Norway will look to avoid a relegation game with a win against Switzerland on Saturday (11 a.m. ET).
Finland 4, Latvia 0 -- Jere Lassila (2024 NHL Draft eligible) had a goal and three assists in Finland's first preliminary-round win in Group A.
Kasper Halttunen (San Jose Sharks) had a goal and an assist, and Noa Vali made 23 saves for Finland (1-0-0-2), which last won the World Juniors in 2019.
Deivs Rolovs made 39 saves for Latvia (0-0-0-3), which is the only country not to score a goal in three tournament games.
Lassila, Finland's captain, gave his country a 1-0 lead when he scored on a rebound in the slot during a power play at 14:15 of the first period.
Jesse Pulkkinen, a C rated skater on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary players to watch list and projected fourth-round pick in the 2024 draft, scored on a snap shot from the left face-off circle 58 seconds later after a pass from Lenni Hameenaho (New Jersey Devils) from the opposite circle at 15:13.
Halttunen pushed it to 3-0 on a snap shot from the right circle during a power play at 8:59 of the second period.
Oiva Keskinen (Nashville Predators) scored a power-play goal on a shot from the right circle for a 4-0 lead 47 seconds into the third period.
Latvia will need to defeat Germany on Saturday (1:30 p.m. ET) to avoid playing in a relegation game. Finland will next play Sweden on Sunday (8:30 a.m. ET).
