It was the most anticipated game of Group B at the 2026 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Men’s World Championship, played before a sell-out crowd of 2,425 at Vladimir Dzurilla Ice Arena in Bratislava. For the USA, it was a convincing 9-1 win over Sweden to take over first place the group.
“I think everybody knew this was a big game, we didn’t have to pump anyone up,” said U.S. captain Casey Mutryn. “We’ve played those guys a lot and it was a fun environment. The guys did a great job of bringing energy the whole game. Obviously, we’ve got Germany the day after tomorrow, so we’re looking to finish off the round robin strong and keep getting better.”
“Our coach told us after we lost to the Czechs that this tournament is about who’s going to get better every single day,” said goaltender Brady Knowling. “I think over the last couple of games we’ve gotten a lot better, and if we keep playing like we played tonight, we’re going to be really good for the rest of the tournament.”
Firing on all cylinders, the Americans scored four times in the opening period and then cruised to a 9-1 win.
The first two U.S. goals were great shots. Diego Gutierrez opened the scoring at 4:46, taking a feed from Dayne Beuker and beating Kevin Tornblom over the glove to the short side. Just over three minutes later, Beuker led a 2-on-1 rush and elected to shoot, again beating Tornblom high to the glove side.
The game was still within reach for a team as offensively explosive as Sweden, but two quick goals late in the first period put the Americans in firm control. They went up 3-0 when Wyatt Cullen’s shot hit Tornblom in the shoulder and went up in the air. Mutryn waited for the puck to fall below the height of the crossbar before bunting it in. Then 1:02 later, Sammy Nelson shot off the rush, using a Swedish defenceman as a screen.
“They’re still a really good team over there and if we see them again, it’ll probably be a really good game,” said Knowling, who stopped 18 of 19 Swedish shots in the game. “My teammates made it really easy on my tonight and I’m very lucky for that.”
Not surprisingly, Tornblom, who had stopped eight of 12 shots in the first period, was replaced at the start of the second period by Viggo Tamm, who went the rest of the way.
Tamm faced some action right away and was sharp, thwarting Beuker on a 2-on-1, but he was beaten for the first time at 26:36 on a wrist shot from the point through a crowd by Logan Lutner.
Not long past the game’s midpoint, Sweden finally got on the board via the power play. Alexander Command passed back to the point and Malte Gustafsson beat a screened Knowling with a labelled wrist shot.
Sweden got two more power plays in the middle frame and could have used them to get back into the game. However, they gave up a pair of shorthanded breakaways. Tamm bailed them out once, denying Nelson. In the dying seconds of the period, it was Nelson and Nick Bogas two-on-nothing. This time, Tamm didn’t have much of a chance, as Bogas chipped the puck into a wide-open net before getting hammered by Marcus Nordmark.
The Americans added goals in the third period by Mikey Berchild, Carter Meyer and Stuart Logan to round out the scoring.
