{"id":195063,"date":"2025-12-30T08:39:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-takes-on-slovakia-tonight-at-5-p-m-ct-in-world-juniors-prelim-round-team-usa-hockey\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T08:39:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T08:39:38","slug":"u-s-takes-on-slovakia-tonight-at-5-p-m-ct-in-world-juniors-prelim-round-team-usa-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/u-s-takes-on-slovakia-tonight-at-5-p-m-ct-in-world-juniors-prelim-round-team-usa-hockey\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Takes On Slovakia Tonight at 5 p.m. CT In World Juniors Prelim Round &#8211; Team USA Hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <span class=\"newsAuthor\">USA Hockey<\/span>, <span class=\"newsDate\">12\/29\/25,  8:45AM  EST<\/span> <br \/><strong>SAINT PAUL, Minn. &ndash;<\/strong> The <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/worldjuniors2026\">U.S. National Junior Team<\/a> faces Slovakia here tonight in its third preliminary round game of the 2026 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. Opening faceoff is set for 5 p.m. CT at Grand Casino Arena. The game can be seen live on NHL Network and tickets are available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.worldjuniorsmn26.com\/\">HERE<\/a>.<br \/>The U.S. has won its first two games of the World Juniors and clinched a spot in the tournament&rsquo;s quarterfinal round on Jan. 2.<br \/>Team USA got past Switzerland in its last outing on Saturday (Dec. 27) by a 2-1 count before an energetic crowd at Grand Casino Arena. For the second straight game, <strong>Will Zellers<\/strong> (Maple Grove, Minn.\/University of North Dakota) scored the game-winning goal and captain <strong>Brodie Ziemer<\/strong> (Chaska, Minn.\/University of Minnesota) also found the back of the net for U.S. head coach <strong>Bob Motzko&rsquo;s<\/strong> team. <strong>Nick Kempf<\/strong> (Morton Grove, Ill.) stopped 16 of 17 shots in goal to pick up his first World Juniors victory.<br \/>Slovakia has split its first two games, dropping a 3-2 decision to Sweden on Friday (Dec. 26) before defeating Germany by a 4-1 count on Saturday (Dec. 27).<br \/>The U.S. and Slovakia will meet for the 22nd time in the World Juniors tonight and Team USA has a 15-0-0-5-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) advantage. The teams last met in the preliminary round of the 2024 tournament with captain Rutger McGroarty tallying a hat trick in helping propel Team USA to a 10-2 victory. The U.S. is 8-2 in the last 10 games of the series.<br \/>Following tonight&rsquo;s game, Team USA will have a day off before facing Sweden on New Year&rsquo;s Even in its final preliminary round game with opening faceoff set for 5 p.m. CT at Grand Casino Arena. Fireworks in Rice Park, which is just outside GCA, follows the game.<br \/>Tag(s):           <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/page\/show\/701370-news\">News<\/a>&nbsp;       <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/page\/show\/2328356-men-s-teams-and-events\">Men&#39;s<\/a>&nbsp;       <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/page\/show\/2328362-u-s-national-junior-team\">World Juniors<\/a>&nbsp;       <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/page\/show\/4616245-home\">Home<\/a>&nbsp;       <a href=\"https:\/\/teamusa.usahockey.com\/page\/show\/9000442-2026-iihf-world-junior-championship\">2026 World Juniors<\/a>&nbsp;    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiZkFVX3lxTE1Wb0FodC1RR0ZaWHRlcklOVmU2bjU2YVpKN1NFd0xKRHJIYWJFdG1IQklwZEhMblFIbE1PSVpXUXc0a0l3NHd4SF9VbzQ1UmdqQkZ1eTJCYVFJMWswT3ZfRmdma3h4Zw?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By USA Hockey, 12\/29\/25, 8:45AM EST SAINT PAUL, Minn. &ndash; The U.S. National Junior Team faces Slovakia here tonight in its third preliminary round game of the 2026 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. Opening faceoff is set for 5 p.m. CT at Grand Casino Arena. The game can be seen live on NHL Network and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-195063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}