(WGR Sports Radio 550) - Tuesday wasn’t Tage Thompson’s best game for Team USA, but the Americans finished Group B play with a 5-2 win over Czechia to finish second in the group.
The Buffalo Sabres forward was held off the scoresheet, and had a very careless turnover with a blind backhand pass that led to David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins) scoring on his NHL teammate Jeremy Swayman on a breakaway.
Thompson played 19:12 of ice-time against the Czechs.
In seven Group B games for Thompson, he was second on the team in goals with five and fourth on the team in points with seven. Thompson leads the tournament with 36 shots on goal, while Pastrnak was second when the game ended with 29.
Following Tuesday's game, Pastrnak led the tournament in scoring with six goals and eight assists for 14 points.
The win puts team USA in second place in Group B with a 5-1-0-1 record. Czechia has the same record, but the U.S. finishes ahead of them because of Tuesday’s win.
Switzerland wins Group B with a record of 6-0-1-0. That’s two more points than the Americans.
Czech goalie Karel Vejmelka (Utah Mammoth) was extremely busy in goal, as the Americans ripped 56 shots on net. Vejmelka was able to turn away 51 of them.
Swayman made 25 saves and won all four of his starts, sporting a 1.97 goals-against average and an .893 save percentage.
Frank Nazar (Chicago Blackhawks) led Team USA with seven goals, and is also their leading scorer with 11 points. Nazar tipped in two power play goals on Tuesday.
Other goal scorers for the U.S. in the win were Josh Doan (Mammoth), Andrew Peeke (Bruins) and Logan Cooley (Mammoth).
Team USA advances to the quarterfinals on Thursday, where there’s a pretty good chance the opponent will be Finland.