Team USA erased a pair of two-goal deficits and held on late for a 6–5 win over Slovakia at the 2026 IIHF World Under-20 Championship in St. Paul. The Americans turned a 2–0 first-period deficit into a back-and-forth game that wasn’t decided until the final minute.
Slovakia opened the scoring at 8:53 of the first period on a goal by Tobias Pitka, then doubled the lead at 11:15 when Tomas Chrenko scored on the power play. That margin held to the intermission, leaving the U.S. chasing the game heading into the second.
The Americans got their first breakthrough short-handed. At 1:50 of the second, AJ Spellacy scored to cut it to 2–1, but Slovakia restored the two-goal cushion at 6:46 with a short-handed goal of its own by Adam Belusko that made it 3–1. The U.S. answered again at 8:33 when Brendan McMorrow scored to pull within 3–2, and the comeback was completed at 11:00 when Ryker Lee tied it on the power play, 3–3.
Slovakia went back in front at 14:44 with another power-play goal to lead 4–3, but the U.S. had a clutch response before the horn. James Hagens scored at 19:15 of the second to tie it 4–4, sending the game to the third even.
USA finally grabbed its first lead 18 seconds into the third when Hagens scored again to make it 5–4. Will Zellers added a power-play goal at 4:34 to extend the lead to 6–4, and the Americans carried that cushion into the closing minutes.
Slovakia made it tense with the goalie pulled, cutting it to 6–5 at 18:06 on an extra-attacker goal from Chrenko. The Slovaks continued to press and toggled the net empty again in the final minute, but the U.S. closed out the last sequence to secure the one-goal win.
This sets up a winner-take-all game on New Year’s Eve with Sweden, the winner taking the top seed in Pool A and the loser finishing second. Both teams have won their first three games in regulation and collected the full share of nine standings points.