Special teams swung the final Group A round-robin game at the 2026 World Juniors, as Team USA fell 6–3 to Sweden in St. Paul. The loss leaves the U.S. second in Group A heading into the quarterfinal round, with the Americans set to play at 6 p.m. ET on Friday on NHL Network.
Sweden grabbed the lead in the first period at 9:17, when Casper Juustovaara opened the scoring to make it 1–0. That advantage carried into the second, where the game’s defining sequence came early in the frame.
At 1:35 of the second, Ryker Lee was whistled for interference on the goalkeeper, and Sweden cashed in on the power play at 3:01 when Eddie Genborg made it 2–0. Sweden kept rolling at even strength at 6:01 on Lucas Pettersson’s first of the night for a 3–0 lead.
The U.S. got on the board with a power-play goal at 8:55, as Chase Reid cut it to 3–1, but the next special-teams moment was a backbreaker. With the Americans on a power play following a diving/embellishment call assessed to Swedish goalie Love Harenstam, Pettersson scored short-handed at 12:44 to push the margin to 4–1. The trouble continued moments later when Logan Hensler took an interference penalty at 14:33, and Sweden converted again on the power play at 15:15 with Genborg’s second of the game to make it 5–1.
USA found a late response in the period at 16:44 when Will Zellers scored at even strength to trim it to 5–2, and the Americans changed goalies to start the third, with Nick Kempf taking over for Brady Knowling.
The U.S. made one more push early in the third. After Pettersson took an interference penalty at 2:14, Teddy Stiga scored a power-play goal at 2:30 to pull the Americans within two. But Sweden answered at 6:43 when the U.S. again got into penalty trouble — Ivar Stenberg scored on a two-man advantage after penalties to Luke Osburn for delay of game and AJ Spellacy for checking to the head to restore the three-goal cushion at 6–3.
The final minutes included late goalie pulls, but no further scoring, as Sweden closed out the win and the U.S. turned the page to the quarterfinals.
The U.S. finishes group play with a 3-0-0-1 record and in second place. Their next opponent will be determined late Wednesday after the completion of Canada-Finland.