ESPOO, Finland - The U.S. Under-18 Men's National Team will face Slovakia today (April 25) in its opening preliminary-round contest of the 2024 IIHF Under-18 Men's World Championship. Puck drop set for 2:00 p.m. local (7:00 a.m. ET) at Metro Arena.

Today's game, and all Team USA games throughout the U18 Championship, will broadcast live on NHL Network. 

Team USA enters the round-robin portion of its schedule after topping Sweden in its lone pre-tournament action, 8-5, on Saturday night in Vierumaki, Finland. 

LJ Mooney (West Mifflin, Pa.), the lone underager on Team USA, led the way with a goal and three assists, while Christian Humphreys (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added two goals and a helper playing on the same line. 

All three team USA goalies appeared in pre-tournament action: Nick Kempf (Chicago, Ill.) started the game, Caleb Heil (Victoria, Minn.) manned the middle period and Jack Parsons (Ithaca, N.Y.) picked up the win playing the final 20 minutes. 

Team USA will look to returning forward Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) for some offensive output. The 2023 gold-medal winner potted nine goals at last year's tournament to lead the U.S. and added a pair of assists for 11 points. 

ALL-TIME AGAINST SLOVAKIA 

The U.S. Under-18 Men's National Team is 10-0-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) all-time in 12 games against Slovakia in the U18 World Championship. The first five games between the two sides, and nine overall, have been played in the preliminary round. The all-time history in the prelims between the two countries is below:

            April 1, 1999 – Slovakia 6, USA 5

            April 17, 2000 – Slovakia 4, USA 1

            April 17, 2001 -- USA 6, Slovakia 2

            April 14, 2003 -- USA 3, Slovakia 2

            April 14, 2005 -- USA 3, Slovakia 1

            April 14, 2009 -- USA 12, Slovakia 0

            April 15, 2011 -- USA 8, Slovakia 1

            April 17, 2015 – USA 10, Slovakia 0

            April 19, 2019 – USA 12, Slovakia 5

TEAM USA PREPARES FOR PRELIMINARY ROUND