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U.S. Faces Norway at 9:15 a.m. ET in 2021 Men's Worlds

By USA Hockey, 05/29/21, 1:30AM EDT

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U.S. Aims for Fourth-Straight Win here in Riga, Latvia

The U.S. Men's National Team meets Norway here today at the 2021 IIHF Men's World Championship. Team USA is 18-0-0-1-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) against Norway in IIHF Men's World Championship play. Norway's lone win came no March 9, 1951, with a 3-0 final. 
     The two teams last met at the 2018 IIHF Men's World Championship in Herning, Denmark, where the U.S. skated to a 9-3 victory behind three-point efforts from captain Patrick Kane, Cam Atkinson and alternate captain Dylan Larkin.

GROUP B STANDINGS
Team USA (3-0-0-1) enters today ranked third (9pts) in a tightly-contested Group B with only Finland (10pts; 3-0-0-1) and Germany (3-0-0-1; 9pts) ahead. Germany sits second due to a +10 goal difference vs. Team USA's +8. Despite the upsets and surprising wins throughout the tournament, the U.S. is focused on their own effort as winning its final three games (Norway, Germany, Italy) in any fashion will guarantee no worse than second-place in group play.

POINT STREAKS
Entering today's game, Jason Robertson (2-3=5) has tallied at least one point in every U.S. game. Trevor Moore (4-2=6) and Matt Tennyson (2-1=3) both have three-game point streaks in which they've tallied all of their tournament points to date. 

HINGHAM BROTHERS
The connection between Team USA's oldest and youngest player extends beyond sharing the same hometown. Brian Boyle (36) and Matty Beniers (18), the oldest and youngest players on Team USA, both scored in the 4-2 over Latvia and have been spending time together on- and off-the-ice here in Latvia, whether it's been playing cards, assisting on goals or even taking part in a postgame press conference. Coincidentally, Boyle heard his name called on June 21, at the 2003 NHL Draft, five months before Beniers was even born (Nov. 5, 2002).

ROSTER's NHL EXPERIENCE
In terms of NHL experience, the 27-player U.S. roster has a total 3,672 of NHL games. Of those games, Brian Boyle (805 GP) and Abdelkader (739 GP) account for 1,544 of those games. The next most experienced NHLer is Kevin Labanc (339 GP), followed by Chris Wideman (181 GP) and Ryan Donato (180 GP). Five players have yet to make their NHL debuts while another 10 have played in 90 or fewer NHL games. 

ROSTER'S 'BLUE COLLAR' MENTALITY
Over the last few years, the U.S. roster has featured NHL All-Stars, first overall NHL Draft picks and Stanley Cup champions.  While this year's roster has one Stanley Cup champion in Justin Abdelkader, its primarily built on late-round or undrafted players. Team USA's roster features just 3 first-round selections, followed by 7 second-rounders, 1 third-rounder, 3 fourth-rounders, 2 fifth-rounders, 2 sixth-rounders, 3 seventh-rounders and 5 undrafted players. In addition, one player has yet to be drafted, but is expected to be a first-round selection in this year's NHL Draft. With more than half of the roster (15) consisting of players taken in the fourth round or later (or undrafted), the team's character is driven by a blue-collar, earn it mentality.
     "This team's ability to pick things up, implement system details, adjust to the opponent, all of it has been phenomenal, and that's a credit to the character within the room," head coach Jack Capuano said earlier this tournament. "Most NHL teams have a handful of guys who are late-rounders or undrafted guys who've had to earn their stripes, earn their spots. You walk into our room and our whole room is guys like that. Now add being able to wear the USA crest, a lot of them for the first time. It's a special group to be a part of, and as a staff we're very honored to be leading them in this year's world championship."

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