Team USA was stunned on Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the 2022 IIHF Under-20 World Championships, falling to Czechia, 4-2, ending the team’s bid for back-to-back titles.
The Americans fell behind, 3-1, and had an opportunity in the third period to rally when Stanislav Svozil was assessed a major penalty for kneeing with 10:56 remaining. And while Carter Mazur scored late in the man advantage to pull the Americans within a goal with 8:29 remaining, the US never found the equalizer.
Jiri Kulich added an empty-net goal for the Czechs with 1:32 remaining to cap the upset.
Czechia entered the elimination round on a sour note, falling to Latvia in the final round robin game, the first-ever victory for Latvia in the World Junior tournament.
But the team was determined on Wednesday. Even after falling behind the Americans when Logan Cooley scored at 12:03 of the first, Czechia didn’t blink.
Instead they responded to tie the game before the end of the first on Jan Mysak’s goal. And then in the middle frame, Czechia took control. Petr Hauser and Matyas Sapovaliv scored 3:01 apart in the middle of the period and the Czech defense held the Americans to just four shots in the frame.
Czechia will face Canada in the semifinals on Friday. Sweden and Finland will battle in the second semifinal for the other berth in the gold medal game.
