taking a puck to the back of the head and needing to be stretchered off the ice<\/a>, scored the first goal for the Americans in their quarterfinal matchup with Finland on Friday night. After a scoreless first period, Hutson broke the deadlock on the very first shift of the second frame.<\/p>\nThe 19-year-old blueliner joined a rush up the ice and received a feed from forward Kamil Bednarik near the top of the left circle. Hutson quickly released a wicked wrister that clanged off the post and beat netminder Petteri Rimpinen.<\/p>\n
After the Finns tied the game at one, Hutson was again a significant factor in putting the Americans back in front. With Team USA on a power play, Hutson received the puck at the point and skated it below the circles in the offensive zone. Instead of peeling around the net, he laid a perfect sauce pass on the tape of Boston University teammate Cole Eiserman.<\/p>\n
Eiserman pumped home a one-time blast to put the team up 2-1 with 9:45 remaining in the second period. The goal was Eiserman\u2019s second of the tournament, both set up by Hutson.<\/p>\n
History was made on the two plays as Hutson tied and then passed Erik Johnson (14) for Team USA\u2019s all-time defense scoring lead at the tournament with 15 points (4g, 11a). The apple on Eiserman\u2019s goal also allowed Hutson to pass Ryan Suter (10) for the career assists record.<\/p>\n
Huston\u2019s older brother, star Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson, had 10 points (1g, 9a) in 14 games at his two tournaments for Team USA.<\/p>\n
Team USA\u2019s all-time defense scoring leaders at World Juniors<\/p>\n
Player
\nGames
\nGoals
\nAssists
\nPoints<\/p>\n
Cole Hutson
\n10
\n4
\n11
\n15<\/p>\n
Erik Johnson
\n14
\n5
\n9
\n14<\/p>\n
Ryan Suter
\n20
\n3
\n10
\n13<\/p>\n
Tim Thomas
\n14
\n4
\n8
\n12<\/p>\n
Luke Hughes
\n13
\n5
\n6
\n11<\/p>\n
Zeev Buium
\n14
\n5
\n6
\n11<\/p>\n
Jacob Trouba
\n13
\n4
\n7
\n11<\/p>\n
Zach Werenski
\n12
\n3
\n8
\n11<\/p>\n
Tom Pederson
\n7
\n2
\n8
\n10<\/p>\n
Ryan Ufko
\n7
\n1
\n9
\n10<\/p>\n
Lane Hutson
\n14
\n1
\n9
\n10<\/p>\n
Hutson\u2019s tremendous return comes after a frightening injury that looked like it could have ended Hutson\u2019s tournament. Hutson, who was briefly hospitalized, was in a very reflective mood as he prepared for Friday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, pretty tough week for me,\u201d Hutson told NHL Network\u2019s Jon Morosi pregame<\/a>. \u201cA lot of emotions, but could be my last time ever wearing a USA jersey. Playing with my best friends, and it\u2019s lose or go home, so it\u2019s going to be a big one.<\/p>\n\u201c[I want to thank] honestly everybody who reached out,\u201d he added. \u201cAll the USA Hockey staff, Washington Capitals, Boston University. Literally, countless messages from people all over the world, and can\u2019t thank them enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hutson now has four points (1g, 3a) in three games at this year\u2019s tournament. If Team USA can defeat Finland, they\u2019ll play again in the semifinals on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cole Hutson picked up right where he left off for Team USA at the 2026 World Junior Championship.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-384959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}