OSTRAVA, Czechia – It’s back to the ice today for the U.S. Men’s National Team as it faces Slovakia here today in preliminary round play at the 2024 IIHF Men’s World Championship. Opening faceoff is set for 4:20 p.m. local time/10:20 a.m. ET at Ostravar Arena. All U.S. games in the world championship can be seen live on NHL Network.

Team USA last played on Saturday night and earned its first win of the tournament with a 6-1 victory over Germany. The game featured 13 different U.S. players registering points, including five with multi-point outings – Johnny Gaudreau (1g, 1a), Michael Kesselring (1g, 1a), Shane Pinto (2a), Cole Caufield (2a), and Seth Jones (2a). 

Slovakia opened the tournament with a 6-4 loss to Germany and yesterday rebounded with a 6-2 triumph over Kazakhstan.

The U.S. and Slovakia last met in the world championship in the quarterfinals of the 2021 event when Colin Blackwell and Conor Garland each scored twice to help the U.S. to a 6-1 victory. The last preliminary round contest between the two teams was in the 2019 world championship and Slovakia came away with a 4-1 win in Kosice, Slovakia. Jack Eichel was named the U.S. Player of the Game and Alex DeBrincat scored the lone U.S. goal before a capacity crowd at Steel Arena. Overall, the U.S. has won seven of the 13 meetings in the all-time series.

Goaltender Alex Lyon was injured in Saturday’s contest and has returned to the U.S. Team USA will dress Alex Nedeljkovic (Pama, Ohio/Pittsburgh Penguins) and Trey Augustine (South Lyon, Mich./Michigan State University) in goal today.