Finland Eliminates USA From World Juniors With First-Round Overtime Stunner

The United States’ time spent on their home ice was short lived during the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship.

After a promising 3-1 start in the preliminary games, Team USA made a prompt first round exit after falling to Finland late Friday night.

The United States had the second highest odds of winning the entire tournament that is being placed in Minneapolis, Minn.

Finland is no pushover, winning gold in 2019 and medalling the next two years. They were eliminated last season by the United States in the quarterfinals in a game that Finland said had stuck with them.

“I said we wanted that revenge from last year,” Finnish captain Aron Kiviharju said. “We kind of earned it tonight.”

The final score was 4-3 and Boston Bruins prospects James Hagens and Will Zellers picked up right where they left off in the preliminary round.

Zellers was tied for the most points in the tournament heading into the first round, recording seven points in the first four games.

He added an assist to his point total last night, cueing up the game-tying goal that forced overtime.

Receiving the primary assist on that same game-tying goal was Bruins first-round draft pick Hagens. Hagens added two assists in Friday night’s loss. The first one came on the power play goal that gave Team USA the lead in the second.

After the eliminating loss, most of the USA’s U20 team will return to their respective universities.

For Hagens this means returning back to Boston College to finish up his sophomore season before potentially making the jump to the Bruins farm system.

Zellers was a USHL standout last year but now attends the University of North Dakota where he has 15 points as a freshman.