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Gameday: U.S. faces Sweden in preliminary-round finale

By USA Hockey, 08/07/19, 5:00AM EDT

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Team USA looks to secure semifinal berth for second-straight year

The U.S. Under-18 Men's Select Team looks to secure a spot in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup semifinals when it takes on Sweden today at 9:30 a.m. ET. Live scoring for the game is available here

Today's Opponent: Sweden
Team USA is 2-2 (W-L) over the last 10 years against Sweden at the Hlinka Tournament. The teams last met in the 2017 when Sweden eliminated the U.S. from championship contention. Prior to 2017, the two teams met in the third-place game of the 2014 tournament when the U.S. defeated Sweden, 5-4, in overtime to earn its second top-three finish in as many years, having finished second at the 2013 event. Dennis Yan (Ann Arbor, Mich.) scored in the final minute of overtime to secure the victory for the Team USA. 

During the semifinals of the 2010 tournament, the U.S. once again defeated Sweden, 5-4, in overtime to earn a championship berth. Team USA dropped a 9-2 loss to Sweden at the 2009 event, and Sweden went on to earn third place at the tournament. 

Game 2 Recap: 

Alex Gaffney (Norton Shores, Mich.) scored a game-winning powerplay tally 3:25 into overtime to lead the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team past Slovakia, 4-3, in its second game of pool play. 

The U.S. took a 1-0 lead at the 13:02 mark of the first period when Avery Hayes (Westland, Mich.) fired a two-on-one feed from Gaffney past Slovakian goaltender Simon Latkoczy to open the scoring.

Slovakia evened the score with under six minutes remaining in the first period, but Team USA retook the lead with 2:39 to play after Noah Ellis' (Urbandale, Iowa) feed to the back post found Ryan Beck (Linden, Mich.), who was able to bury the puck past Latkoczy to make it a 2-1 game.

After a late Slovakian tally with 30 seconds to play in the second stanza, Slovakia took a 3-2 lead off the stick of Martin Chromiak in the third period before Team USA’s Ben Schoen (Maumee, Ohio) answered with a powerplay tally 1:10 later. 

Gaffney put away his own rebound on the powerplay with 1:32 remaining in the stanza to complete Team USA’s comeback and secure a 4-3 win over the host nation.

2019 U.S. Roster

2019 Homepage

U.S. Schedule

Date Opponent Round Time (Local/ET)/Result Location Streaming Statistics U.S. Player of Game
Thurs., Aug. 1 Hungary (Under-20) Exhibition W, 6-4 Budapest, Hungary Live Stream
Box Score Alex Gaffney
Sat., Aug. 3 Czech Republic Exhibition L, 1-3 Břeclav, Czech Republic Requires VPN with Czech IP Address Box Score Louden Hogg
Mon., Aug. 5 Russia Preliminary L, 2-6
Piešťany, Slovakia Requires VPN with Slovakia IP Address
Box Score Jake Ratzlaff
Tues., Aug. 6 Slovakia Preliminary W, 4-3 (OT)
Piešťany, Slovakia Requires VPN with Slovakia IP Address
Box Score Ryan Beck
Wed., Aug. 7 Sweden Preliminary L, 4-5 (SOL)
Piešťany, Slovakia Requires VPN with Slovakia IP Address
Box Score Ryan Kirwan
Fri., Aug. 9 Czech Republic Fifth-Place Game L, 3-4 (OT)
Břeclav, Czech Republic Requires VPN with Czech IP Address
Box Score Wyatt Kaiser

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