Danny Nelson (Notre Dame) tallied a pair of goals and James Hagens (Boston College) had two assists to help lift the U.S. National Junior Team to a 5-1 victory over Latvia in its second preliminary round contest of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship Saturday afternoon at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Ont.
“We saw some growth in our game today,” said Team USA coach David Carle (Denver) in a statement. “Was it perfect? No. A lot of compliments to Latvia and how hard they played. We had to earn every inch of ice we got and that will help us as we move forward in the tournament.”
Nelson, named the U.S. Player of the Game, kicked off the scoring for Team USA just 1:58 into the contest as he banged home a net-front opportunity. Cole Eiserman (Boston University) and Colin Ralph (St. Cloud State) added assists on the tally.
Team USA netminder Hampton Slukynsky (Western Michigan) denied Markuss Sieradzkis on a two-on-zero opportunity 58 seconds into the second frame for one of his 25 saves in the victory.
U.S. captain Ryan Leonard (Boston College) cashed in on a power-play opportunity at the 5:08 mark as he redirected a pass from Hagens that threaded through a swarm of Latvian players.
Zeev Buium (Denver) added a third U.S. goal at 11:13, scoring at the side of the net with the teams skating four-on-four after a nifty feed from Hagens.
Nelson recorded his second tally of the game with just six seconds remaining in the middle frame as he backhanded a shot home to give on the power play and the U.S. led 4-0 after 40 minutes.
Latvia got its lone goal of the game off the stick of Davids Livsics at 8:22 before Max Plante (Minnesota Duluth) finished a two-on-one with Teddy Stiga (Boston College) at 15:31 to account for the 5-1 final score.
The U.S. National Junior Team is back in preliminary round action against Finland tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on NHL Network.
