Sweden Bests USA, 6-3, In World Juniors Preliminary Round

By SportMaster On Jan 1, 2026 195

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. National Junior Team received goals from Chase Reid (Chesterfield , Mich./Soo Greyhounds), Will Zellers (Maple Grove, Minn./University of North Dakota) and Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass./Boston College) but came up short in a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Sweden here tonight at Grand Casino Arena in its fourth and final preliminary round contest of the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Team USA completed the preliminary round with a 3-0-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record to finish second in Group A. The U.S. will play Finland in the quarterfinals Friday (Jan. 2) at 5 p.m. CT in Grand Casino Arena. The game will be televised live on NHL Network and tickets are available HERE.

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME DAY | U.S. Concludes Preliminary Stage Versus Canada

Feb 10, 2026

Remaining Grounded

Feb 10, 2026

“We came out with good energy in what was a terrific atmosphere here tonight,” said Bob Motzko, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team and also head coach of the University of Minnesota men’s ice hockey team. “We have to clean up the turnovers and that’s something we’ll focus on as we get set for our quarterfinal game.”

Team USA nearly took the lead less than five minutes into the game, but LJ Mooney’s (West Mifflin, Pa./University of Minnesota) point-blank shot rang off the post.

Ryker Lee (Wilmette, Ill./Michigan State University) forced a turnover in the middle of the offensive zone with 7:30 left in opening period and had a golden chance in alone on goaltender Love Harenstam , but the Swedish netminder got a pad on the shot to turn him away.

Less than three minutes later, Sweden took the lead after a puck deflected off Logan Hensler’s (Woodbury, Minn./University of Wisconsin) skate in front and past U.S. goaltender Brady Knowling (Chicago, Ill./U.S. National Under-18 Team).

Sweden took a 2-0 lead 3:01 into the middle frame when Liam Danielsson laced a cross-ice pass to Eddie Genborg, who rifled home a powerplay tally from the left circle.

At 6:01 in the second stanza, Sweden’s Lucas Pettersson extended its lead, scoring off a wrister from the top of the right circle.

Reid put Team USA on the board at the 8:55 mark of the period after he collected a rebound at the point and fired a quick wrist shot through traffic that found the back of the net.

Pettersson picked up his second tally of the contest with 7:16 to play in the middle stanza, finishing a two-on-one chance while shorthanded with a top-shelf snipe to give Sweden a 4-1 lead.

With 4:45 remaining in the second, Viggo Bjorck found Genborg on the back door, who deflected the puck past Knowling for a power play tally to make it a 5-1 game.

After a shot from James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y./Boston College) was stopped, and Brodie Ziemer (Chaska, Minn./University of Minn.) was denied on the follow-up chance, Zellers crashed the net and batted Ziemer’s rebound over the shoulder of Harenstam to make it 5-2 with 3:16 left in the second.

The U.S. made it a two-goal game 2:30 into the third when Mooney sent a hard saucer pass from the half wall to Stiga in the slot, who redirected the puck into the top right corner of the goal on the power play.

At the 6:43 mark of the final frame, while on a two-man advantage, Ivar Stenberg gave Sweden a 6-3 lead after capitalizing off of a backdoor feed from Jack Berglund for what proved to be the final tally of the contest.

Knowling stopped 23 shots across two periods of action, while Nick Kempf (Morton Grove, Ill./University of Notre Dame) played the third and made 14 saves.

NOTES: Sweden outshot Team USA 43-31 … The U.S. was 2-6 on the power play, while Sweden was 3-4 … Will Zellers was named U.S. Player of the Game.