Last year, Team USA went undefeated in the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship with a 51-10 goal difference. The Americans enter the 2024 edition determined to repeat. 
 
They’re off to a great start after their 9-0 win over Slovakia. James Hagens scored two and added two assists, Cole Eiserman scored a hat trick, and Nicholas Kempf made 24 saves en route to a shutout. 
 
"It was a fun game, we play together as a team and some of the plays we made out there, you can see that everyone’s playing together, no-one’s on their own page. And we need that to win the gold medal," Hagens said.
 
"It was a tough game, they're a good team, but we have to play better tomorrow," said Slovakia captain Tomas Pobezal. "We must play better."
 
Slovakia could hardly have been put to a tougher test than meeting the defending champions in their first game. Last year, the US beat Slovaks 7-1 in the quarterfinal, which, though, was a great achievement for the Slovaks who had returned to the top division after a four-year-absence. 
 
Team USA got the start they wanted when defenseman Cole Hutson went on the attack and fired a laser from the left faceoff dot and beat Alan Lendak on the short side at 2:34. 
 
Unfazed, Slovakia fought back and created a couple of great scoring chances but couldn’t solve Nicholas Kempf in the American goal. 
 
Halfway through the first period, Slovakia got a two-minute minor when Jan Chovan lobbed the puck over the glass. It took the Americans only 31 seconds to score their second of the game, after a beautifully executed set play that Eiserman finished from the doorstep, assisted by Brodie Ziemer and James Hagens.  
 
With 45 seconds remaining in the first period, Hagens grabbed the puck on the American blueline and effortlessly went coast to coast before scoring his first of the tournament, extending the Americans’ lead to three after the first twenty minutes. 
 
"I love the big rink, there's a lot more space and lot more time to make moves and cut back. It’s different but we just have to use it to our advantage," Hagens said. 
 
And the Americans kept on pushing. In his first shift of the period, Hagens fooled the Slovakia defense with a drop pass that found Teddy Stiga alone in front of the net. 4-2 just 59 seconds onto the period. Ziener also picked up an assist. 
 
Even though Slovakia had their chances, it was Team USA who carried the play, keeping the puck in the Slovak zone for most of the period. However, it took them another 14 minutes to score again. John Whipple beat Lendak with a great snipe from the left circle off a cycle play by Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen and Karmil Bednarik. 
 
Hagens made it 6-0 two and a half minutes later, increasing his points total to four. Ziener picked up his third assist. 
 
"It’s so fun to be linemates with those guys, you see the puck moving from side to side, it’s just fun," said Hagens.
 
Team USA made it 7-0 at 7:18, after an impressive tic-tac-toe play by Hutson, Trevor Connelly, and Christian Humphreys who got the honor of delivering the puck to the back of the net from the doorstep. 
 
Their eighth goal came with nine and a half minutes remaining in the game when Eiserman scored his second of the night.  And with 94 seconds remaining, he finished his hat trick with another wrister from close range to make it 9-0. 
 
"The biggest goal we have is making sure we play as a team, but obviously, we came here to win the gold medal," Hagens said.