Forward, potential No. 1 pick in 2025 Draft, has 2 goals, 2 assists; Sandin-Pellikka gets hat trick for Sweden
© Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
Thursday is the first day of the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship, which is being held in Ottawa.
United States 10, Germany 4 — James Hagens, who could potentially be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, had two goals and two assists for the United States in its first game in Group A at Canadian Tire Centre.
Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers) had two goals and an assist, and Cole Hutson (Washington Capitals) had five assists for the United States, which won the gold medal at the 2024 WJC in Sweden. Brodie Ziemer (Buffalo Sabres) scored two goals, Trevor Connelly (Vegas Golden Knights), Brandon Svoboda (San Jose Sharks) and Cole Eiserman (New York Islanders) each had a goal and an assist, and Trey Augustine (Detroit Red Wings) made 18 saves.
“Like any of your first games, there’s good and bad,” United States coach David Carle said. “A lot more good, I think, than bad, but certainly some teaching.”
Julius Sumpf (2025 draft eligible), David Lewandowski (2025 draft eligible), Lenny Boos (2025 draft eligible) and Timo Ruckdaschel (2025 draft eligible) scored for Germany. Nico Pertuch (2025 draft eligible) made 46 saves.
Hagens opened the scoring at 8:07 of the first period when he drove to the net and chipped a loose puck over Pertuch.
Perreault made it 2-0 at 11:56 off a feed from Hagens. Perreault, Hagens and Ryan Leonard (Capitals), the United States’ captain, play on the same line at Boston College.
Connelly made it 3-0 at 1:38 of the second period, burying his own rebound to finish off a 3-on-2 rush.
Sumpf scored from the left circle to make it 3-1 at 5:00, and Lewandowski scored from the high slot to cut it to 3-2 at 9:23.
Hagens pushed it to 4-2 at 14:01 when he took a pass from Perreault and scored from between the face-off circles.
The goal came after the United States had to kill a penalty following an unsuccessful challenge for offside on Lewandowski’s goal.
“That was big, and it came after that shift with [Oliver] Moore, Ziemer and [Max] Plante. They hemmed them in and forced an icing,” Carle said. “James’ line comes out, wins a wall battle, Gabe gets to the inside, and [Leonard] is at the net. … I think the bench breathed a little bit after getting through the kill and then getting that goal and ending the second period like we did.”
Svoboda made it 5-2 at 18:40 with a backhand in the crease, and Perreault made it 6-2 at 19:39.
Carey Terrance finished a give-and-go with Svoboda to make it 7-2 at 3:04 of the third period.
Boos scored on a rebound at the front of the net to make it 7-3 at 5:37.
Ziemer made it 8-3 at 7:16, scoring on a backdoor tap-in. He then made it 9-3 at 9:44 after a video review confirmed that the puck crossed the goal line.
Ruckdaschel made it 9-4 with a shot from the slot at 16:14.
Eiserman closed the scoring at 18:13.
Germany’s next game will be against Finland on Friday (3:30 p.m. ET). The United States’ next game will be against Latvia on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET).
Czechia 5, Switzerland 1 — Miroslav Holinka (Toronto Maple Leafs) and Jakub Stancl (St. Louis Blues) each had a goal and an assist for Czechia in its opening Group B game at TD Place.
Eduard Sale (Seattle Kraken), Ondrej Kos (Blues) and Petr Sikora (Washington Capitals) also scored for Czechia. Michal Hrabal (Utah Hockey Club) made 25 saves.
Leo Braillard (2025 draft eligible) scored for Switzerland. Elijah Neuenschwander (2025 draft eligible) made 30 saves.
Holinka gave Czechia a 1-0 lead at 4:46 of the first period when he redirected a point shot by Tomas Galvas (2025 draft eligible).
Sale scored a power-play goal from the bottom of the right face-off circle at 6:10 of the second period to make it 2-0.
Kos pushed the lead to 3-0 at 7:28, scoring with a sharp-angled shot that went off a Switzerland player and past Neuenschwander.
Stancl made it 4-0 at 4:31 of the third period.
Braillard made it 4-1 at 7:08. Endo Meier (2025 draft eligible) skated in a 2-on-1 rush, got down below the goal line, and passed back to Braillard for a tap-in.
Sikora scored at 17:31 for the 5-1 final.
Switzerland next plays against Slovakia on Friday (1 p.m. ET). Czechia plays Kazakhstan on Saturday (1 p.m. ET).
Sweden 5, Slovakia 2 — Axel Sandin-Pellikka (Detroit Red Wings) had a hat trick and an assist for Sweden in its win against Slovakia in a Group B game at TD Place.
Otto Stenberg (St. Louis Blues), Felix Unger Sorum (Carolina Hurricanes) and David Granberg (2025 draft eligible) each had two assists for Sweden, which lost 6-2 to the United States in the gold-medal game in the 2024 WJC, which took place on its home ice in Gothenburg. Melker Thelin (Utah Hockey Club) made 15 saves.
Dalibor Dvorsky (Blues) and Daniel Jencko (2025 draft eligible) scored, and Samuel Urban (2025 draft eligible) made 29 saves for Slovakia.
Dvorsky gave Slovakia a 1-0 lead at 11:53 of the first period with a shot from the right circle. The center, who is playing in the WJC for the fourth time, is tied for first on Springfield of the American Hockey League with 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in 27 games this season.
Rasmus Bergqvist (Montreal Canadiens) tied the game 1-1 at 3:41 of the second with a wrist shot from the left circle.
Sandin-Pellikka put Sweden in front 2-1 with a power-play goal at 17:43 of the second.
Sandin-Pellikka then increased the lead to 3-1 at 3:58 of the third before completing the natural hat trick at 14:01.
Linus Eriksson (Florida Panthers) made it 5-1 at 15:29.
Jencko scored for Slovakia with 1:25 remaining for the 5-2 final.
Slovakia will next play Switzerland on Friday (1 p.m. ET), when Sweden will face off against Kazakhstan (5 p.m. ET).
