Hauser, Hughes Each Contribute Assists on Sunday | WJC BLOG

Both Devils prospects were on the scoresheet with assists during Sunday's World Juniors group play. Up first was 2022 141st overall draft pick Petr Hauser and Czechia taking on Latvia.
Although Latvia upset Czechia 5-2, Hauser picked up his first point of the tournament, a helper on Czechia's second goal. The Devils prospect's shot was blocked and then his teammate Stanislav Svozil recovered the puck and popped it over the Latvian goaltender to score.

During Sunday's late game, the U.S. survived a third-period push by Sweden to win 3-2. The Americans finish the group stage with a perfect 4-0-0 record.
The U.S. opened the scoring on the power play six and a half minutes into the first period. After the Americans recovered the puck off of a Sweden turnover, Luke Hughes found Thomas Bordeleau just above the face-off circle. Bordeleau passed to Brett Berard, who was to the left of the net, with a no-look pass. Berard went to work getting it past the Swedish goaltender on his second shot and putting the U.S. up 1-0.

The U.S. would go on to score again in the opening six minutes of the second period to take a 2-0 lead, and then in the first six minutes of the third period to make it 3-0. However, Sweden started a comeback attempt in the final 10 minutes of regulation with a goal by Emil Andrae.
With less than two minutes left in the third period, Sweden got a power play opportunity after the U.S.'s Wyatt Kaiser was assessed for a delay of game penalty. 28 seconds into the man-advantage, Are Stakkestad scored for Sweden to cut the U.S.'s lead to 3-2. Sweden continued to pepper shots on net in the final seconds but the U.S. survived and finished the group stage as the number one seed.
Luke Hughes played 22:50 and had one assist against Sweden. Through four group stage games, the defenseman has one goal and five assists for six points. He finishes the preliminary round +7.
Czechia, the number four seed in Group A will play the U.S., the number one seed in Group B, in the quarterfinals on Aug 17.