VICTORIA, British Columbia – The U.S. scored four unanswered goals - including a natural hat trick by Ryan Poehling (Lakeville, Minn./St. Cloud State University) - over the last 10:26 of regulation to force overtime, but was unable to complete the comeback as the U.S. National Junior Team fell to Sweden, 5-4, in its third preliminary round game of the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship.
"We weren't there for the first two and a half periods but boy did we show what we're capable of there at the end," said Mike Hastings (Crookston, Minn./Minnesota State), head coach of the 2019 U.S. National Junior Team. "I told our team that it's okay to feel a little short, to have this feeling, because we did this to ourselves. This team knows that it's up to players in the room to decide how far we can go in this tournament."
The U.S. (2-0-1-0/W-OTW-OTL-L) will close preliminary round play on Monday (Dec. 31) with a New Year's Eve tilt against Finland (2-0-0-1). Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. local time (10:30 p.m. ET) and will be televised live on NHL Network.
Watch the game highlights below.
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