{"id":195313,"date":"2026-01-01T13:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usa-battles-sweden-for-group-a-title-tonight-at-5-p-m-in-st-paul-team-usa-hockey\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:08:09","slug":"usa-battles-sweden-for-group-a-title-tonight-at-5-p-m-in-st-paul-team-usa-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/usa-battles-sweden-for-group-a-title-tonight-at-5-p-m-in-st-paul-team-usa-hockey\/","title":{"rendered":"USA Battles Sweden For Group A Title Tonight at 5 p.m. in St. Paul – Team USA Hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

By USA Hockey<\/span>, 12\/31\/25, 9:15AM EST<\/span>
SAINT PAUL, Minn. –<\/strong> The U.S. National Junior Team<\/a> faces Sweden here tonight in a high stakes game that will decide the top spot in Group A of the preliminary round. 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 HERE<\/a>.
Both the U.S. and Sweden head into the fourth and final preliminary round game unbeaten, and the winner of tonight’s tilt will earn the top spot in Group A and play the fourth-place finisher from Group B in the quarterfinals on Friday (Jan. 2). Team USA will play its QF game at 5 p.m. in Grand Casino Arena.
The U.S. has a slim 17-2-1-16-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) advantage in the all-time series over Sweden, however, the U.S. has won seven of the last 10 games. The teams last met in the gold-medal game in the 2024 tournament in Gothenburg, Sweden, with the U.S. earning a 6-2 victory. Five of the last 10 games between the teams have been played with a medal on the line, including two for gold (2024, 2013) and three for bronze (2023, 2016, 2011). The U.S. has won each of those five contests.
Team USA rallied from a pair of two-goal deficits to gain a 6-5 win over Slovakia in its last outing on Monday (Dec. 29). James Hagens<\/strong> (Hauppage, N.Y.\/Boston College) scored a pair of goals and Will Zellers<\/strong> (Maple Grove, Minn.\/University of North Dakota) had the game-winning goal for the third straight contest.
Sweden last played on Monday (Dec. 29) and gained an 8-1 win over Germany. Sweden also has a 4-2 win over Switzerland (Dec. 28) and a 3-2 triumph over Slovakia (Dec. 26) to its credit.
Will Zellers<\/strong> is Team USA’s top point-getter through three games with 4-2—6, followed by James Hagens<\/strong> (2-2—4), Brodie Ziemer<\/strong> (1-3—4) and AJ Spellacy<\/strong> (1-3—4).
Tag(s): News<\/a>  Men's<\/a>  World Juniors<\/a>  Home<\/a>  2026 World Juniors<\/a>  <\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By USA Hockey, 12\/31\/25, 9:15AM EST SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The U.S. National Junior Team faces Sweden here tonight in a high stakes game that will decide the top spot in Group A of the preliminary round. Opening faceoff is set for 5 p.m. CT at Grand Casino Arena. The game can be seen live […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":195314,"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-195313","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\/195313","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=195313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}