Team USA captain Rutger McGroarty (Michigan) tallied a hat trick and was one of 16 players to contribute points, while Trey Augustine (Michigan State) had 38 saves to lead the U.S. National Junior Team to a 10-2 win Sunday over Slovakia in its final preliminary-round game of the 2024 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship at Frolundaborg in Gothenburg, Sweden.
“I thought we played extremely well overall,” said David Carle (Denver), head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team, in a statement. “To kill that five-minute major was huge and Trey (Augustine) was great during that stretch and in the game overall. We’re continuing to build and now we’re on to the next phase with the quarterfinals.”
With the victory, Team USA won Group B and will face the fourth-place finisher of Group A in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 5 p.m. local/11 a.m. EDT.
McGroarty opened the scoring 6:21 into the contest when he crashed the net, gathered the rebound off a shot from Oliver Moore (Minnesota) and capitalized with a wrap-around goal to give Team USA a 1-0 lead.
At the 8:57 mark, Slovakia’s Marian Mosko (Cornell) leveled the tally with a shot from the blue line that deflected off a U.S. stick and in.
Just 1:16 later, Team USA regained the lead. Zeev Buium (Denver) weaved through the Slovakian defense from the point and rifled a shot five-hole with a toe-drag release. Gavin Hayes and Sam Rinzel (Minnesota) added helpers on the play.
Augustine was sharp in the period, making 11 saves, including a point-blank stop of Jozef Kmec with 30 seconds left in the period and Slovakia in the middle of a five-minute power play.
Gavin Brindley (Michigan) scored short-handed to put Team USA up 3-1 just 29 seconds into the middle frame after picking up a loose puck in the defensive zone and going coast-to-coast, including dangling past a Slovakian defender before finishing with a top-shelf snipe.
With 2:10 remaining in the second, Filip Mesar made it a one-goal game, scoring a power-play goal on a wrist shot from the right circle that took a slight deflection off a skate and in.
Team USA responded with two quick goals in the following 1:03 of action. Will Smith (Boston College) found Ryan Leonard (Boston College) in the slot, who blasted a shot glove-side into the top corner with just under two minutes to go. McGroarty then picked up his second tally of the game to put the U.S. up 5-2 with 1:07 remaining in the frame, capitalizing with a one-timer off a cross-ice feed from Drew Fortescue (Boston College).
McGroarty completed his hat trick 4:06 into the third period. Cutter Gauthier (Boston College) made a spinning pass from behind the net to find McGroarty at the bottom of the right circle, who roofed it far-side to give Team USA a 6-2 lead.
Isaac Howard (Michigan State) added to the tally at the 5:49 mark with a one-time blast from the top of the circles. Danny Nelson (Notre Dame) and Brindley recorded assists on the play.
At 9:15, Eric Pohlkamp (Bemidji State) extended the U.S. lead with a one-time slap shot from the point. Gauthier then made it 9-2 with 9:00 to go after batting home a rebound on the power play.
Howard picked up his second of the game with 7:42 remaining to cap off the 10-2 victory.
NOTES: McGroarty was named U.S. Player of the Game … Team USA outshot Slovakia 44-40 … Team USA and Slovakia were both 1 for 3 on the power play … Eight players recorded multi-point games, including McGroarty (3-0—3), Gauthier (1-2—3), Lane Hutson (0-3—3), Howard (2-0—2), Brindley (1-1—2), Buium (1-1—2), Ryan Chesley (0-2—2) and Nazar (0-2—2).
