U.S. NATIONAL JUNIOR TEAM GAME NOTES 2016 International Ice Hockey Federation USA (3-0-0-1) vs. Czech Republic (2-0-1-1) World Junior Championship Quarterfinal Quarterfinal • Saturday, Jan. 2, 2016 • 8 p.m. Local/1 p.m. ET • Helsinki Ice Hall • Helsinki, Finland TONIGHT’S GAME TEAM USA STATS THUS FAR The United States faces the Czech Republic tonight at Hel- Through four games, Auston Matthews is tied for second in sinki Ice Hall (8,200) in the quarterfinals of the 2016 IIHF goals (4) and fourth in points (8) in the 2016 IIHF World Ju- World Junior Championship. Tonight’s game will be televised nior Championship ... Zach Werenski is second in points (5) live in the U.S. on NHL Network. The two teams have met in among all defensemen ... Fifteen players have earned at least the quarterfinals four times, with the U.S. claiming wins in one point ... The line of Auston Matthews (4-4-8), Matthew three of those games. Their last quarterfinal meeting was a Tkachuk (2-5-7) and Colin White (3-4-7) has combined for 7-0 U.S. victory on Jan. 2, 2013. 22 points ... Matthews is the first U.S. player to notch at least eight points in a world junior championship since 2013 when USA vs. Czech Republic Johnny Gaudreau (9), J.T. Miller (9), Jacob Trouba (9) and Tale of the Tape Alex Galchenyuk (8) each reached or surpassed the mark in seven games. Category USA Czech Republic Record 3-0-0-1 2-0-1-1 THINGS TO KNOW Goals For/Avg. 18/4.5 12/3.0 Team USA is 7-7-0 all-time in quarterfinal games in the World Goals Against/Avg. 5/1.25 10/2.50 Junior Championship (see list of results on page two of these Power Play .177 (3-17) .111 (1-9) notes) ... The U.S. trailed in three of its four preliminary round Penalty Killing .900 (9-10) .636 (7-11) games ... Forward Alex DeBrincat, who was injured vs. Swe- Shots For Gm/Avg. 148/37.00 143/35.75 den on Dec. 28, will return to the lineup tonight ... U.S. Head Shots Against Gm/Avg. 95/23.75 91/22.75 Coach Ron Wilson on the Czech Republic, “They’re a real Shorthanded Goals 1 0 disciplined team that doesn’t give up many shots. We have Top Scorers Matthews (4-4-8) Spacek (2-3-5) to stick to our style of play in order to have success here to- White (3-4-7) Smejkal (2-2-4) night.” ... Seven players, including Louie Belpedio, Anders Tkachuk (2-5-7) Pastrnak (1-3-4) Bjork, Brandon Fortunato, Ryan Hitchcock, Auston Mat- Werenski (2-3-5) Lakatos (2-0-2) thews, Sonny Milano, and Alex Nedeljkovic, will face 15 players who were on the Czech squad that faced the U.S. SERIES VS. CZECH REPUBLIC Men’s National Under-18 Team in the gold-medal game of The U.S. leads the all-time series versus the Czech Repub- the 2014 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship. Led by lic, 10-1-1-7-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L-T) in the IIHF World Junior head coach Danton Cole and assistant coach Kevin Reiter, Championship. In their 20 meetings to date, Team USA has the U.S. received two goals from Matthews and a three-point outscored the Czechs, 63-60, including 21-11 over the last performance (2-1) from U.S. Player of the Game Milano to five meetings. The last meeting was a 5-1 U.S. victory on win the gold medal with a 5-2 victory ... Team USA (3-0-0-1) Dec. 26, 2013, in the preliminary round. won three of its four preliminary-round games for the third year in a row ... For the U.S., five goals against ties the 1997 IN GOAL TONIGHT U.S. squad for second fewest goals allowed through prelim- Alex Nedeljkovic is the likely starter in goal tonight. He has al- inary round play. The 2004 and 2011 U.S. squads share the lowed the fewest goals (4), ranks first in goals-against-average record for fewest goals against with four. All three of those (1.62) and sits second in save percentage (.931) among goal- teams went on to earn medals, including one gold (2004), tending leaders in the World Juniors. His last outing came on one silver (1997) and one bronze (2011) ... Three U.S. players Dec. 30 when he played the first 28:09 of Team USA’s 10-1 win will celebrate birthdays in January, including Scott Eansor over Switzerland and stopped seven-of-eight shots. (Jan. 3), Alex Nedeljkovic (Jan. 7) and Colin White (Jan. 30). TEAM USA SCHEDULE Exhibition Games Dec. 18 W, 4-0 Dec. 22 W, 3-2 UMASS Mullins Center FINLAND Isku Arena 2016 IIHF World Junior Championship Games* Dec. 26 Preliminary Round W, 4-2 Jan. 2 Quarterfinals 8 P.M. Local/1 P.M. ET CANADA (home/white) Helsinki Ice Hall CZECH REPUBLIC (home/white) Helsinki Ice Hall Dec. 28 Preliminary Round L, 0-1 Jan. 4 TBA SWEDEN (visitor/blue) Helsinki Ice Hall SEMIFINALS Hartwall Arena Dec. 30 Preliminary Round W, 10-1 Jan. 5 4 P.M. Local/9 A.M. ET SWITZERLAND (home/white) Helsinki Ice Hall BRONZE MEDAL Hartwall Arena Dec. 31 Preliminary Round W, 4-1 Jan. 5 8:30 P.M. Local/3:30 P.M. ET DENMARK (home/white) Helsinki Ice Hall GOLD MEDAL Hartwall Arena *All games broadcast live on NHL Network (DirectTV 215, Dish 157) worldjuniors.usahockey.com • #USAWJC • 2016 U.S. National Junior Team • @usahockey • @usahockeyscores Team USA Game Notes vs. Czech Republic • Jan. 2, 2016 • Page 2 PREVIOUS QUARTERFINAL GAMES GROUP A FINAL STANDINGS The playoff format was adopted for the IIHF World Junior Team GP W OTW OTL L GF:GA PTS Championship beginning in 1996. The U.S. has qualified for Sweden 4 4 0 0 0 19:5 12 the playoffs 18 out of 20 years, including 16 of the last 17 USA 4 3 0 0 1 18:5 9 tournaments. From 1977-95, teams played each other once Canada 4 1 1 0 2 13:12 5 in a round-robin format and medals were awarded based on Denmark 4 1 0 0 2 4:16 3 final standings. Switzerland 4 0 0 1 2 7:23 1 Year Result W L Opponent PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME #4 1996 0-3 L Sweden DEC. 31: USA 4, DENMARK 1 1997 Bye to semifinal Anders Bjork, Auston Matthews, Sonny Milano and Colin 1998 1-4 L Czech Republic White each scored and Brandon Halverson made 16 saves 1999 Relegation as the U.S. National Junior Team defeated Denmark, 4-1. 2000 5-1 W Sweden Brandon Carlo was named the U.S. Player of the Game. 2001 1-2 L Canada 2002 1-6 L Russia PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME #3 2003 4-3 W Czech Republic DEC. 30: USA 10, SWITZERLAND 1 2004 Bye to semifinal Eleven players contributed points as the U.S. National Junior 2005 8-2 W Sweden Team earned a 10-1 victory over Switzerland. Five players 2006 2-1 W Czech Republic had three or more points in the game, led by Auston Mat- 2007 6-3 W Finland thews with four (2-2--4) and Matthew Tkachuk (2-1--3), 2008 Bye to semifinal Christian Dvorak (1-2--3), Colin White (1-2--3) and Zach 2009 3-5 L Slovakia Werenski (1-2--3) each with three. Matthews was named the 2010 6-2 W Finland U.S. Player of the Game. 2011 Bye to semifinal 2012 Relegation PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME #2 2013 7-0 W Czech Republic DEC. 28: SWEDEN 1, USA 0 2014 3-5 L Russia Team USA outshot Sweden, 46-23, but fell 1-0. Zach Wer- 2015 2-3 L Russia enski, who led all players in the game with six shots on goal, was named the U.S. Player of the Game. The loss was Team STARS AND STRIPES, EPISODE FOUR USA’s first against Sweden in the last 12 outings (10-1-0-0- Episode Four of Stars and Stripes, USA Hockey’s all-ac- 1), which included three medal-game victories (gold: 2013, cess video series documenting the journey of the 2016 US. bronze: 2011, 2007). National Junior Team, includes a tour of Team USA’s locker- room. It can be found at worldjuniors.usahockey.com. Addi- PRELIMINARY ROUND GAME #1 tionally, those interested can use their virtual reality headset DEC. 26: USA 4, CANADA 2 or Google Street View for bonus access. The four captains - Louie Belpedio, Auston Matthews, Zach Werenski and Colin White - each scored to lead the GAVIN REGAN HERE U.S. past rival Canada, 4-2. White was named U.S. Player Gavin Regan (Potsdam, N.Y.), vice president of USA Hock- of the Game. The win was the ninth consecutive in tourna- ey and chair or the organization’s international council, has ment-opening games for Team USA. been in Helsinki with Team USA since the beginning of the tournament and will be here through the duration of the event. worldjuniors.usahockey.com • #USAWJC • 2016 U.S. National Junior Team • @usahockey • @usahockeyscores Team USA Game Notes vs. Czech Republic • Jan. 2, 2016 • Page 3 ALL-TIME RESULTS VS. CZECH REPUBLIC IIHF World Junior Championship Date Round W OTW OTL L T GF GA 1/4/1994 Round-Robin L 3 7 1/4/1995 Round-Robin W 7 5 12/29/1996 Preliminary-Round W 2 1 1/3/1997 Semifinals W 5 2 12/31/1997 Quarterfinals L 1 4 12/28/1998 Preliminary-Round L 3 6 12/26/1999 Preliminary-Round T 2 2 1/3/2000 Semifinals L 1 4 12/29/2000 Preliminary-Round L 2 4 12/25/2001 Preliminary-Round W 3 1 1/2/2002 Placement Round W 4 3 1/2/2003 Quarterfinals W 4 3 12/30/2004 Preliminary-Round L 1 3 1/4/2005 Bronze-Medal OTL 2 3 1/2/2006 Quarterfinals W 2 1 12/28/2008 Preliminary-Round W 4 3 1/4/2009 Fifth-Place Game OTW 3 2 12/30/2011 Preliminary-Round L 2 5 1/2/2013 Quarterfinals W 7 0 12/26/2013 Preliminary-Round W 5 1 TOTALS 20 GP 10 1 1 7 1 63 60 TIDBITS FROM PAST GAME NOTES Junior Championship since a 5-2 victory on Dec.