The 2026 World Junior Championship quarterfinal between USA and Finland on Friday, Jan. 2, was full of surprises. USA was still without Max Plante, but they did get Cole Hutson back from injury. They did lose Brendan McMorrow later in the game as he blocked a shot and broke his finger. Nick Kempf was in the net, and the first period had chances for both sides, but ended scoreless.
The second period is where things took off as both USA and Finland scored, but USA took the lead into the final period. Finland fought back to force overtime, and despite USA’s efforts, Finland took the overtime win. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways from USA’s side, starting with the good about their game.
USA’s Special Teams Solid
While it’s hard to accept the loss in the way they did, USA did have a solid game when it came to their special teams. They scored a power play goal that got them their second lead of the game, and that was the lead they held the longest before Finland stormed back into the game in the third period.
They had three chances on the man advantage, and although they scored on the one that gave them the lead at the time, it would’ve been even better if they had scored on a second one to give themselves a bit of a cushion. On the other side, however, they had to kill off two penalties, and they did without allowing a goal.
They did a strong job of staying out of the penalty box, and although they didn’t allow a shorthanded goal, it still wasn’t enough. They had to find a way to step up, and they couldn’t do it even on the power play.
USA’s Cole’s Step Up
They needed more from their top players, and again, although it wasn’t quite enough, their top players of Cole Eiserman and Cole Hutson, stepped up and contributed. Hutson got the first goal of the game in his first game back from injury, and it was quite the emotional moment for him and the entire team.
Finland did tie it up, and then it was Eiserman’s turn to produce, and he scored the go-ahead goal that gave USA their second lead of the game, and Hutson recorded one of the assists. USA wasn’t outskating Finland by any means, but at this point in the game, they looked like they were headed in the right direction. Unfortunately, they couldn’t keep it going despite having some great chances in overtime.
“Yeah, at times, I thought we made good plays for a lot of the game, but, like I said, the little bounces that they get, all their grade A chances came from our mistakes,” said Hutson when asked about the team being too casual with the puck.
USA’s Energy Lacked
USA didn’t play a terrible game, yes, they had a number of turnovers that ended up costing them as the players eluded them too, but the bigger issue was their lack of energy. When a team is doing well and playing well, it’s easy to see the energy level. They skate faster, they move the puck efficiently, everything runs smoothly, and there’s a strong pace that wasn’t there for Team USA.
It was hard to tell if they were tired or just struggled to find that motivation they needed to get their energy up. Of course, there were moments of good, like when they scored their goals, but they went away just as quickly. If they had been able to harness that energy and push their style of game, it could’ve had a different outcome.
Related: Guide to the 2026 World Junior Championship
“We let our country down, we’re on home soil, they did a great job coming to our games, and we didn’t do it for them, and that’s the hardest part,” said Eiserman about the emotions after the loss.
This was the end of the tournament for USA, and it was obviously earlier than expected. Their team was entertaining this season but fell short, it’ll be interesting to see how they do next year and who wins gold this year.
