Cole Caufield (Wisconsin) scored the game-winning goal with 1:46 remaining in overtime to push the U.S. National Junior Team past the host Czech Republic 4-3 Monday in its fourth and final preliminary round game of the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship at Ostravar Arena.
With the win, the U.S. completes the preliminary round with a record of 2-1-0-1 and will finish as the first or second seed in Group B heading into the quarterfinals, which will be played Thursday.
Game times and matchups are to be determined. The game will be broadcast live on NHL Network.
“We knew there was going to be some adversity in this game and there certainly was with penalties and the penalty kills, but that’s how games go and it was great to see our guys pull it out in the end,” said Team USA coach Scott Sandelin (Minnesota Duluth). “Caufield and (Wisconsin teammate Alex) Turcotte made a great play. They have some great chemistry and it looks like they’ve done that before.”
Caufield was selected the U.S. player of the game.
Shane Pinto (North Dakota), Arthur Kaliyev (OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs) and Jack Drury (Harvard) also scored, while Spencer Knight (Boston College) made 26 saves in goal.
With the overtime victory, USA extended its win streak over Czech Republic in IIHF World Junior Championship play to six games.
The U.S. outshot Czech Republic 43-29 and went 1 for 7 on the power play and 4 for 6 on the penalty kill.
