Larkin leads Team USA to U18 World Championship title game

By Michael Caples –

Waterford native Dylan Larkin scored a goal and an assist and Plymouth Whalers goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 19 of 20 shots, as Team USA picked up a 4-1 win over Sweden in the IIHF Men’s Under-18 World Championship.

With the victory, the U.S. Men’s National Under-18 Team will move on to the gold-medal game, and take on the Czech Republic tomorrow at noon.

Tomorrow will mark the U.S. sixth straight Under-18 World Championship title game appearance. Team USA has four gold medals in that time frame.

The Americans have also won the last eight meetings against the Czechs in this tournament; Team USA also beat them just seven days ago, recording a 3-0 victory in preliminary-round play.

Shelby Township native Kyle Connor failed to record a goal for the first time all tournament, but he set up Auston Matthews’ goal at the 3:11 mark of the first period to tie the game at 1-1.

From there, it was all Team USA. Ryan Hitchcock scored a goal in the second, and Larkin struck at the 8:38 mark of the third. For icing on the cake, Larkin set up Jack Eichel for a goal at the 19:14 mark of the third.