CAMROSE, Alta. -- Charlie Coyle (East Weymouth, Mass./Boston Univ.) scored twice, while Brandon Saad (Gibsonia, Pa./Saginaw Spirit) and Jarred Tinordi (Millersville, Md./London Knights) had a goal and an assist each, as the 2012 U.S. National Junior Team blanked Slovakia, 5-0, tonight at the Three Hills Centennial Arena.

Tonight marked Team USA's final pre-tournament game leading up to the 2012 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, which will take place from Monday (Dec. 26) through Jan. 5 in Edmonton and Calgary, Alta.

"Tonight was an extremely physical, hard-fought victory," said Dean Blais, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. "I thought our goaltending was very good, and our energy was high."

For the second straight game, Team USA scored in the opening minute of the first period when Coyle tipped an Adam Clendening (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) slap shot past Slovakian starting goalie Dominik Riecicky.

The U.S. opened up a three-goal lead with a pair of power-play goals late in the first period. Saad redirected a pass from Clendening into an open side at 18:12 with his team on a two-man advantage. Then, Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev./Univ. of Denver) found the back of the net just 52 seconds later to make the score 3-0 after one.

Two minutes into the second period, Tinordi pushed the U.S. advantage to four goals when he collected a pass from Emerson Etem (Long Beach, Calif./Medicine Hat Tigers) at the Slovakian blue line, rushed in and fired a shot just under the bar. Coyle's second tally of the night at 8:15 of the second period proved to be the game's final goal.

Jack Campbell (Port Huron, Mich./Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds) and John Gibson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Kitchener Rangers) combined to make 20 saves in the win, while Slovakian goalies Riecicky and Juraj Simboch stopped 32 shots in a losing effort.

Team USA will play its first preliminary-round game of the IIHF World Junior Championship on Monday (Dec. 26) against Denmark. The game, to be televised on NHL Network U.S., will start at 8:00 p.m. EST.

NOTES: Team USA finished 2-for-6 on the power play, while Slovakia was 0-for-6 with the man advantage ... Jason Zucker was named captain of the U.S. National Junior Team earlier in the day, while Emerson Etem and Jarred Tinordi were named alternate captains ... NHL Network U.S. will televise all Team USA games in the 2012 IIHF World Junior Championship and 15 games total in the event.  The U.S. National Junior Team is coming off back-to-back medals in the IIHF World Junior Championship for the first time ever, having earned a bronze medal in last year's event in Buffalo, N.Y., and a gold medal at the 2010 World Junior Championship in Saskatoon, Sask. ... Dean Blais, head men's ice hockey coach at the University of Nebraska Omaha, is serving as head coach of the 2012 U.S. National Junior Team. He is assisted by Scott Sandelin, head men's ice hockey coach at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Tom Ward, head ice hockey coach of the Shattuck-St. Mary's School's boys' prep team; and Joe Exter, assistant men's ice hockey coach at Ohio State University ... Jim Johannson, USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the third consecutive year. Tim Taylor (Guilford, Conn.), former U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team head coach and longtime Yale University men's ice hockey team head coach, is also serving his third straight year as Team USA's director of player personnel ... The U.S. National Junior Team blog will provide daily updates with game recaps, photos and multimedia content. The blog can be found here ... Use the hashtag #USAWJC to join the conversation on Twitter.

GAME SUMMARY

Scoring By Period

USA 3 - 2 - 0 - 5
SVK 0 - 0 - 0 - 0

First Period - Scoring: 1, USA, Coyle (Clendening), 0:55; 2, USA, Saad (Clendening, Etem), 18:12 (pp2); 3, USA, Zucker (Miller, Arnold), 19:04 (pp). Penalties: SVK, Trska (tripping), 4:21; USA, Miller (roughing), 10:10; SVK, Marincin (roughing), 10:10; SVK, Cajkovsky (cross-checking), 11:25; USA, Watson (cross-checking), 14:17; SVK, Matousek (charging), 17:22; SVK, Marincin (slashing), 17:51; USA, Tinordi (roughing), 19:56; SVK, Bene (roughing), 19:56.

Second Period - Scoring: 4, USA, Tinordi (Etem), 2:03; 5, USA, Coyle (Saad, Tinordi), 8:15. Penalties: USA, Etem (interference), 5:47; USA, Czarnik (cross-checking), 8:27.

Third Period - Scoring: None. Penalties: SVK, Dolnik (goalie interference), 0:16; USA, Brickley (kneeing), 9:24; USA, Team (too-many-men), 11:34; SVK, Tvrdon (slashing), 15:43; USA, Forbort (delaying-the-game), 18:46.

Power Play: USA 2-6; SVK 0-6
Penalties: USA 8-16; SVK 8-16

*All games in Edmonton will be played at Rexall Place. All games in Calgary will be played at Scotiabank Saddledome.
^Pre-tournament game