The U.S. National Junior Team, behind two goals from John Farinacci (Harvard), earned a 5-2 victory over Slovakia Saturday night in Edmonton in quarterfinal play of the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship.
With the win, the U.S. advances to the tournament semifinals where it will face Finland on Monday at 9:30 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast live on NHL Network.
“It was a good game, and hats off to Slovakia who made it a really tough game,” said Team USA coach Nate Leaman (Providence) in a statement. “I’m proud of the way we got through it, and we’re on to the next phase.”
Arthur Kaliyev (OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs), Cole Caufield (Wisconsin) and Matthew Beniers (Michigan) added goals and Spencer Knight (Boston College) finished with 16 saves in goal for Team USA.
Trevor Zegras (Boston University) had two assists in the game and leads all players in scoring at the tournament.
Slovakia got on the board with 1:28 left in the second period when Matej Kaslik fired one home from the right dot to break a tournament-record shutout streak by Team USA of 218:53.
Team USA has advanced to the semifinals of the IIHF World Junior Championship for the fifth time in the last six years.
In other action in Edmonton Saturday, Northeastern goalie Devon Levi made 29 saves as Canada knocked off the Czech Republic 3-0 to advance to the semifinals. Boston College forward Alex Newhook missed the game with an upper-body injury.
Canada plays Russia Monday at 6 p.m. EST.
