If you want to watch the United States team play Switzerland in the quarterfinals of the IIHF U-18 World Championships, make sure you set that alarm.
Game time from the Metro Arena in Espoo, Finland, is 5 a.m. EDT on Thursday, and you can watch it on the NHL Network and live stream it on fubo TV (add-on, FREE trial), ESPN+, Sling TV (add-on, discount) and DirecTV Stream (introductory discount and free trial, add-on).
Team USA swept through the preliminary round, beating the four other members of Group A by a total of 33-7.
Switzerland finished fourth in Group B with a 1-0-1-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record, earning a 5-2 win over Kazakhstan in its second preliminary game. It lost to Canada 8-1 on Sunday and finished the opening round with only eight total goals.
Team USA is the tournament’s top-scoring team, averaging 8.25 goals per game without scoring double-digit goals in a game. It’s the top seed overall in the tournament and history would suggest it likely will win Thursday. The U.S. team is 13-2 in the quarterfinals all-time, having lost just once in the past 20 years.
- WATCH: NHL Network, and live stream on fubo TV (add-on, FREE trial), ESPN+, Sling TV (add-on, discount) and DirecTV Stream (introductory discount and free trial, add-on)
Teams are re-seeded after each round of competition which means if Team USA advances, it will play the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals at 7 a.m. EDT or 11 a.m. on Saturday. The top four seeds are USA-1, Canada-2, Finland-3, Czechia-4.
The championship game is set for Sunday.
Switzerland will have to figure out how to slow center James Hagens, who has a tournament-high 18 points through four games. By comparison, the entire Swiss team has totaled 18 points. He has been complemented by Cole Eiserman (6 goals, 2 assists) and Trevor Connelly (4 goals, 4 assists).
Defensively, Team USA leads the tourney with only seven goals allowed.
It also has been lethal on the power play (10-for-17, 58.8 percent), while Switzerland has struggled to score (2-for-13, 15.3 percent) with the man advantage.
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