{"id":667688,"date":"2026-01-01T22:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/667688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T22:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:11:09","slug":"team-usa-excited-for-world-juniors-quarterfinal-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/667688\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA Excited For World Juniors Quarterfinal Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 While the end of 2025 didn\u2019t go quite as planned for the U.S. National Junior Team<\/a> as Sweden bested the U.S., 6-3, Team USA is turning the page and excited to battle Finland tomorrow in the quarterfinals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe real tournament starts now,\u201d said U.S. head coach Bob Motzko<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the loss stung for the U.S., it is a familiar spot for some of the players in the locker room.<\/p>\n

At last year\u2019s tournament, the Americans lost to Finland 4-3 in overtime during the preliminary round before reversing that result against the Finns in the gold-medal game.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to get the loss out of the way. Kind of frees you up so you’re gripping your stick a little less tight,\u201d said Teddy Stiga<\/a>, who scored the overtime goal to secure gold at last year\u2019s tournament. <\/p>\n

Heading into the quarterfinals, Motzko said Team USA will need to rely on the players from last year\u2019s team to help this group bounce back. He mentioned that a few of those veterans are finding their offensive game at the right time. <\/p>\n

Throughout the preliminary round, Stiga put himself in great positions to score but couldn\u2019t find the back of the net in the opening three games. The Boston College sophomore tallied his first goal of the tournament in the third period against Sweden. <\/p>\n

His Boston College teammate James Hagens<\/a> \u2014 who tallied nine points in seven games last year \u2014 scored twice in a 6-5 win against Slovakia on Monday, which were his first goals of the tournament. Meanwhile, captain Brodie Ziemer<\/a> has consistently been on his game, Motzko said, and leads the team with five assists. <\/p>\n

The U.S. planned to enter World Juniors with nine players from last year\u2019s gold medal-winning team. However, Trevor Connelly suffered an injury in a pre-tournament game against Germany that forced him off the roster. <\/p>\n

Injuries to veteran players have continued to pile up for Team USA during the tournament. Cole Hutson<\/a>, who tallied a tournament-high 11 points last year, left the game against Switzerland after getting hit in the head with a puck. An injury then forced Max Plante<\/a> to leave the game against Slovakia. <\/p>\n

Motzko said Hutson will likely be back for tomorrow\u2019s game against Finland, but he doesn\u2019t expect Plante to return. <\/p>\n

Multiple newcomers have stepped up for Team USA thus far, but none have made a stronger first impression than Will Zellers<\/a>. The North Dakota freshman has scored in every game and is tied with Tomas Chrenko of Slovakia with a tournament-high five goals.<\/p>\n

Zellers said he gained a lot of weight this offseason once he got to North Dakota, which helped add power to his shot. He entered this tournament full of confidence after scoring 10 goals in his first 18 collegiate games, and that\u2019s turned into a goal-scoring tear at World Juniors. <\/p>\n

Zellers is carrying on a recent tradition of Maple Grove, Minnesota, natives who\u2019ve played for the U.S. Junior National Team. His friend Colin Ralph helped the U.S. win gold last year, and Zellers said he fondly remembers watching Brock Faber win gold in 2021. <\/p>\n

Playing less than 30 miles from his hometown adds even more significance to this tournament for Zellers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a kid in a Maple Grove sweatshirt out there for warmups [before the Slovakia game]. It\u2019s so special to know you\u2019re backed by kids that you were in their shoes not too long ago,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Zellers has dreamed of playing in this tournament since he was 10 years old and remembered watching players like Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras lift the U.S. to gold in 2017 and 2021, respectively. With the knockout round starting tomorrow, he\u2019s three wins away from achieving that feat himself.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou watch these games, and you watch all these teams, and all those guys are champions,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to cement your name and be a gold medalist for the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story from <\/strong>Red Line Editorial, Inc.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 While the end of 2025 didn\u2019t go quite as planned for the U.S. National…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":667689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-667688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115822138627182968","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/667689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}