Undefeated at the World Juniors; Seven Eagles are Representing Their Country Overseas

Every year around the holiday season the best amateur hockey players from around the world convene for an international tournament where they compete for the gold medal.

Tournaments in past years have featured NHL superstars like Connor McDavid who won gold for Team Canada in 2015. Or, in more recent memory, BC alums and NHL stars Matt Boldy and Spencer Knight represented Team USA and secured gold for the Americans as recently as 2021.

In the past two seasons, the Americans have had more of a tumultuous go in this tournament largely due to the absence of elite players from the college hockey bluebloods where the majority of the US players are picked from, and despite a ten-point performance from BC star forward Cutter Gauthier in last year’s tournament, the Americans failed to get over the hump.

This year things look different.

The Eagles have sent six freshman skaters overseas to Gothenburg, Sweden. Returnee Cutter Gauthier is joined by forwards Will Smith, Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault, as well as defensemen Drew Fortescue, and Aram Minnetian.

Ironically, this group of skaters had an international experience like this no more than a year ago. Every April, a similar tournament is held for u-18 players, and most recently, the Americans took home the gold medal largely due to Will Smith’s MVP-level performance. Due to their previous successes overseas, this group of freshman forwards has become colloquially known as “The USA Line” to many BC hockey fans.

This group of six skaters will be joined by BC’s freshman goalie Jacob Fowler who is fairly new to international competition. However, that is not to downplay Fowler’s domestic experience as he too, had an MVP-level performance in America’s top junior hockey league last spring.

Through two preliminary games and three group-stage games, the Americans have shown no signs of slowing down as they remain undefeated with BC skaters combining for 14 points in tournament play.

Yesterday the Americans ground out a 4-3 OT victory against Czechia that featured Jacob Fowler shutting down the Czechs in a seven-round shootout.

Team USA will wrap up group-stage competition tomorrow against Slovakia at 6 a.m. ET airing on NHL Network.