The United States scored four unanswered goals – including a natural hat trick by Ryan Poehling (St. Cloud State) – over the last 10:26 of regulation to force overtime, but was unable to complete the comeback as the U.S. National Junior Team fell to Sweden 5-4 in its third preliminary round game of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship Saturday night in Victoria, B.C.
Adam Boqvist notched the OT winner 3:51 into the extra session.
“We weren’t there for the first two and a half periods, but, boy, did we show what we’re capable of there at the end,” said Team USA coach Mike Hastings (Minnesota State) in a statement. “I told our team that it’s okay to feel a little short, to have this feeling, because we did this to ourselves. This team knows that it’s up to players in the room to decide how far we can go in this tournament.”
Mikey Anderson (Minnesota Duluth) also scored for the U.S., while Kyle Keyser (Oshawa Generals) stopped 28 shots between the pipes.
Poehling added an assist for a four-point game, while Oliver Wahlstrom (Boston College) and Sasha Chmelevski (Ottawa 67’s) each registered a pair of assists.
The U.S. will close preliminary round play with a New Year’s Eve tilt against Finland. Puck drop is set for 10:30 p.m. EST.
