Six different players tallied goals to help the U.S. to an 8-0 victory over Germany Sunday at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn., in its first pre-tournament contest of the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“It was good to get a game under our belts and I thought we did some good things,” said Bob Motzko, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team and also head coach of Minnesota, in a statement. “We really like our group and we’ll look forward to getting on the ice tomorrow before we play Finland on Tuesday.”
After both sides were held scoreless for the opening 19 minutes of the contest, Will Horcoff (Michigan) opened the scoring with 52 seconds remaining in the opening frame when he capitalized on a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle off a feed from James Hagens (Boston College). Brodie Ziemer (Minnesota) also tallied a helper on the play.
Just 34 seconds later, and nine seconds into a power play opportunity, Luke Osburn (Wisconsin) threaded a pass across the slot to Ryker Lee (Michigan State) on the back door, who tucked the puck past German netminder Lennart Neisse to double the U.S. lead.
At the 3:51 mark of the middle frame, while on the man advantage, Lee stickhandled past a pair of German players and maneuvered into the slot, where he sent a backhand dish to Will Zellers (North Dakota) at the bottom of the right circle, who batted a one-timer home short-side to give Team USA a 3-0 lead.
Teddy Stiga (Boston College) added to the tally with 1:37 to play in the second when he wristed the puck top-shelf from the slot off a feed from Lee. Horcoff then capitalized on a breakaway chance just eight seconds later to make it a 5-0 with Ziemer and EJ Emery (North Dakota) picking up assists on the play.
At the 1:30 mark of the final stanza, while the U.S. was shorthanded, Shane Vansaghi (Michigan State) intercepted a pass in the defensive zone and sent a pass to Cole McKinney (Michigan) who was all alone skating through the neutral zone. McKinney capitalized on a breakaway opportunity on the backhand to put the U.S. up 6-0.
Zellers got his second of the night with 4:12 remaining, scoring on a wrist shot from the top of the circles while on the power play.
With 2:26 to play in the contest, Ziemer scored off a feed from Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen (N
Michigan) to account for the 8-0 final.
Brady Knowling (USA Hockey’s NTDP) played the first 27:23 and made 12 stops to pick up the win. Nick Kempf (Notre Dame) played the final 32:37 and also had 12 saves.
The U.S. outshot Germany 49-24. Team USA went 3-for-6 on the power play, while Germany was 0-for-4.
The U.S. will play its second and final pre-tournament game Tuesday against Finland at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minn. Opening faceoff is set for 6 p.m. local time/7 p.m. ET, and the game will be streamed live on USAHockeyTV.com.