U.S. Collegiate Selects advance to the Spengler Cup Championship
Plus: The U.S. World Junior team
The U.S. Collegiate Selects punched their ticket to the Spengler Cup final with a 5-3 win over HC Sparta Praha in Tuesday morning’s semifinal. The Selects will play for the championship Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday afternoon’s semifinal between HC Davos and HC Fribourg-Gottéron.
Puck drop for the title game is set for 6:10 a.m. Eastern.
Eric Pohlkamp opened the scoring with a power-play goal at the 6:44 mark of the first period. Aiden Fink doubled the lead less than a minute later, but Sparta responded with a late goal in the opening frame and then tied the game just seconds into the second period.
The Selects seized control midway through the second when Charlie Cerrato found the net, and Aiden Fink put the game away by completing his hat trick just 1:02 into the third period.
In goal, Alex Tracy (Minnesota State) made 32 saves in his first start of the tournament. With the victory, the Selects have now used all three of their goaltenders during the Spengler Cup run.
World Junior Championship
United States 6, Slovakia 5: The U.S. stayed unbeaten in Group A behind a two-goal performance from James Hagens (Boston College).
The Americans trailed for much of the game but flipped the script early in the third period, striking twice in the opening minutes to seize the lead. Hagens pulled the U.S. within one to make it 5-4, and Will Zellers (North Dakota) followed a few minutes later with the go-ahead goal.
“When me, [Hagens] and [Brodie Ziemer] got out there first shift (of the third period), our mindset was just getting it deep, getting it behind them, and just having a junkyard shift,” Zellers said. “Get it low to high and just get a greasy one there. So, that was kind of our mindset the whole time. We just stuck to our plan. They’re not all going to be pretty, so you just make sure that you find a way.”
U.S. forward Max Plante (Minnesota Duluth) did not play in the third period because of an injury, and head coach Bob Motzko said afterward he did not yet have an update on Plante’s status. The U.S. also remained without Cole Hutson (Boston University), who was injured Saturday.
The U.S. closes out the preliminary round Wednesday against Sweden at 6 p.m. Eastern, with both teams entering the matchup unbeaten.
Canada 9, Denmark 1: Canada rolled past Denmark in convincing fashion, fueled by a hat trick from Gavin McKenna.
“Obviously, that’s something you dream of as a kid,” McKenna said of scoring a hat trick on the international stage. “Felt pretty good, and it was a lot of fun.”
Porter Martone (Michigan State) added two goals and an assist for Canada, while Keaton Verhoeff (North Dakota) made his World Juniors debut after being a healthy scratch for the first two games.
Canada wraps up preliminary-round play Wednesday night against Finland at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.