OTTAWA — In the 50th all-time meeting between bitter border rivals at the World Juniors, the United States emerged victorious on the eve of a new year.
United States defenseman Cole Hutson and forward Cole Eiserman each scored a goal and an assist in a 4-1 win over Canada on Tuesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre. Three of the Americans’ goals came on the power play, taking advantage of an undisciplined Canadian team that took 11 penalties.
Hutson scored a power-play goal to open the scoring in the first period, blocking his ears in response to the contentious, pro-Canada crowd in Ottawa. Canada led the game in shots for most of the contest but trailed on the scoreboard until the third period. That changed when Canadian forward Bradly Nadeau one-timed a power-play goal of his own past American goaltender Trey Augustine. Minutes later, United States forward Danny Nelson scored the go-ahead goal thanks to assists from Hutson and winger Trevor Connelly.
Canadian forward and projected 2026 No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna had a significant opportunity to tie the game at two in the third period but hit the crossbar. Soon after, Eiserman put the game out of reach with his team’s third power-play goal. The Americans added an exclamation point with an empty net goal from Ryan Leonard late in the third period.
Team USA ends the preliminary round as Group A winners and they’ll meet Switzerland, the fourth-seeded team from Group B, in the quarterfinals. Switzerland defeated Kazakhstan earlier on Tuesday to advance to the quarterfinals. Canada finishes third in Group A and will have a date against Czechia in their quarter-final matchup on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Sweden defeated Czechia 4-2 to win the top seed in Group B. They’ll face Latvia in the quarterfinals, who lost to Finland 3-0 on Tuesday. Finland is Group A’s second-seeded team and they’ll play Group B’s third-seeded Slovakia on Thursday.
Kazakhstan will play Germany in the relegation game ahead of the four quarterfinal games on Jan. 2.
(Top photo of Cole Hutson: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
