Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass.) nearly opened the scoring less than five minutes into the contest, but was stopped in the slot at point-blank range by Finnish netminder Kim Saarinen.

Ryker Lee (Wilmette, Ill.) opened the scoring at 9:25 after he forced a turnover in the offensive zone and found the back of the net following a pass from James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.).

Finland responded 20 seconds later when Roope Vesterinen poked a rebound chance home to tie the contest at 1-1 before Jasper Kuhta gave the visitors the lead with 5:18 remaining on a wraparound shot. Saarinen made a glove save on Hagens from the slot with :38 left in the stanza and Finland had a 2-1 advantage after 20 minutes.

U.S. goaltender Nick Kempf (Morton Grove, Ill.) made a stellar toe save just 49 seconds into the second on Sebastian Soini’s one-timer.

Stiga scored the only goal of the middle frame at 13:11 as he drove toward the net and powered the puck past Saarinen.

Team USA took the lead for good 2:01 into the final frame as Shane Vansaghi (St. Louis, Mo.) swatted a bouncing puck home for a 3-2 advantage. Lee followed up with his second of the game at 3:38 and Stiga tallied an empty-net goal with 40 seconds remaining to account for the 5-2 final.

Kempf and Caleb Heil (Victoria, Minn.) combined for 25 saves in the victory.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME PHOTOS

The first period was scoreless and included 14 saves from U.S. netminder Jack Parsons (Cortland, N.Y.). Aidan Park (Playa Vista, Calif.) had a good chance to put the U.S. in the lead with 2:41 left in the period on the power play, but his net-mouth opportunity was denied. Will Zellers (Maple Grove, Minn.) created a breakaway chance 30 seconds later, but was unable to beat Swedish netminder Love Härenstam.

Sweden opened the scoring 5:07 into the second as Ivar Stenberg deflected a shot from Sascha Boumedienne past Parsons.

Team USA tied the game with 5:28 left in the period as LJ Mooney (West Mifflin, Pa.) sent a cross-ice pass to Luke Osburn (Plymouth, Mich.) who rifled a wrister home from the left circle.

Mooney gave the U.S. its first lead of the contest with 1:01 left to play in the second as he corralled a pass from Ben Kevan (Fairfield, Calif.) and wristed a shot past Harenstam’s blocker. Team USA held a 2-1 lead heading into the final frame.

Sweden tied the contest with 9:36 left in regulation as Jack Berglund beat U.S. goalie Kam Hendrickson (Chanhassen, Minn.) on the glove side. Stenberg capitalized on a penalty shot with 7:51 left in the period to give Sweden a 3-2 lead before completing a hat trick with an empty-net goal with 1:54 remaining.  Felix Öhrqvist added a second empty netter to account for the 5-2 final.

USA Blue outshot Sweden, 34-32, as Hendrickson and Parsons combined for 27 saves.

GAME PHOTOS