If its pre-tournament exhibition game against Canada West was any indication, the U.S. Junior Select Team should give a good account of itself at the 2025 World Junior A Challenge.

The Americans emerged with a 5-2 victory on Friday, and coach Andy Brandt (Wausau, Wis.) mostly liked what he saw from his players.

“It was a good start for us,” Brandt said. “Our special teams were excellent. Our power play was one-for-one. And our penalty-kill [unit] killed off five for us. From a special teams standpoint, we had a lot of success.

“From a five-on-five standpoint, we had some scoring chances up and down the ice but obviously being a first game as an exhibition game, there are some things that we can obviously work on and clean up.”

Brandt said that he feels good about his team as the tournament gets underway.

“I think our goaltending is extremely strong,” Brandt said. “We have a good blend of puck-moving [defensemen] as well as guys who have some offensive creativity.

“And up front, our depth is good. We have guys who can put the puck in the back of the net, and we also have a blend of guys who play direct north.”

Brandt expects such players as defensemen John Stout (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Mace’o Phillips (Wayzata, Minn.) and forward Landon Hafele (Fairbanks, Alaska) to provide leadership for a team that has several players with international experience.

The team boasts six players selected in the 2025 NHL Draft, including Phillips, Brent Solomon (Champlin, Minn.), Jackson Crowder (Allen, Texas), Ashton Schultz (Excelsior, Minn.), Carter Sanderson (Pierre, S.D.) and Caleb Heil (Victoria, Minn.).

Heil and Stout return from last year’s championship team, which overcame a preliminary round loss to Sweden to beat the Swedes in the final game. Heil also played in the 2023 Challenge.

The 22-player U.S. roster includes 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. There are 10 players from Minnesota, two from California, and New Jersey, and one from Alaska, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Texas.

All of the players compete in the United States Hockey League, the nation’s only Tier 1 junior hockey league.

“Certainly, we’ll lean on those guys that have the experience of what it means to play in a short, competitive tournament like this,” Brandt said. “We’ll need them going forward.”

As always, the U.S. should face stiff competition from the other three teams: Sweden, Canada West and Canada East.

“We haven’t seen Sweden yet,” Brandt said. “We do know that they have some potential first-round [NHL Draft] talent on that roster. Overall, the competitiveness, the compete level, the pace of the tournament will be extremely high.”

Brandt is impressed with the venue, which is home to the Trois-Rivières Lions of the ECHL.

“The rink is outstanding up here,” Brandt said. “They’ve done a great job. Practice facility, game facility — they’re beautiful. To be able to play in that environment, I know our guys are excited.”

Marc Boxer has been the team’s general manager since 2008. He said that he has a great staff onsite that will work toward success this week.

“The players are excited to be here,” Boxer said. “Hopefully, these kids can come together, like a lot of our teams do, and have some success. We expect to come up and win. You have to have that mindset and give that to the staff, and they give that to the players. They’ve got to work hard and execute to make that happen, and hopefully we’ve done a good job with our selection process that we have hard-working kids with ample talent and the ability to come together as a group.

“All of these guys are the best players on their teams. They all have to buy in. We expect you to play for the crest on the front. We understand they’re teenagers, young men having to accept a role, but when they do, really good things happen.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.