USA Defeats Canada in Shootout in First Outdoor World Junior Game

The first-ever outdoor game in the history of the World Juniors came all the way down to the wire, with the United States taking the shootout victory by a score of 4-3 on Friday evening.

Over 40,000 people faced the tough weather conditions that quickly went from clear and smooth to snowy and slippery as the first period wore on. Around halfway through, the snow became a detriment to moving the puck, with the rubber disk stopping at multiple occasions.

Still, it took just 4:13 of playing time for the first goal to get the fans moving in the crowd. At 4:13 on the power play, Cale Makar, who dressed as Canada's seventh defender in the contest, took a nice wrist shot that beat a cold Jake Oettinger from just inside the zone, giving Canada the first goal of the historic contest. It was also the first goal by a defenceman for Canada this year, a surprising stat given how important the blue line was to Canada’s pre-tournament success.

Canada scored on their next power play chance at 15:14. Just under a minute after the man advantage began, Dillon Dube took advantage of a puck that seemed to slow down before unleashing a hard wrist shot just under the bar, beating Oettinger to make it 2-0 on Canada's eighth shot of the contest.

The snow started to really pick it up in the second period, causing multiple delays due to big piles of snow stopping the play. It slowed the pace down immensely, with very few scoring chances at both ends as a result.

The Americans would get their first goal of the game with just over three minutes left in the second on their own power play chance. Playing on the 5-on-3, Kieffer Bellows used the extra ice to wait before sending a hard slap shot past Carter Hart, perhaps using the falling snow as a distraction to cut USA’s lead in half.

But Canada snapped back for their third of the night. After getting robbed on the breakaway, Boris Katchouk would get a goal after tipping in Jake Bean's slap shot from just inside the zone, tipping it over Oettinger to give them their two-goal lead back.

After Maxime Comtois got lucky he wasn’t ejected for a dangerous hit-from-behind, USA found themselves cutting the lead to one. Scott Perunovich would score after walking into the slot and one-timing a pass from Casey Mittelstadt at 6:09, a goal that typically wouldn’t happen in normal conditions due to players having to adjust their defensive play to allow their goalies to see the action better.

Mittelstadt, who scored USA's second goal against Slovakia on Thursday, was on fire with three primary assists. His third came with 13:17 left to play when he set up 2018 NHL Draft prospect Brady Tkachuk. Tkachuk was able to outlast a Canadian defenceman before sliding the puck past Hart's right pad, tying the game up at three apiece.

The first outdoor game at the World Juniors would require a shootout to decide the victor, similar to how the United States won the gold medal in Montreal back in January. Bellows and Tkachuk would both score in the skills competition, giving the United States the come from behind victory at New Era Field.

Canada will finish their round robin action with an 8:00 PM meeting with Denmark at KeyBank Center on Saturday night. USA will get a day to rest before facing Finland on New Year's Eve, their final test before the start of the playoff round.

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