3 'Star' keys to success for United States against Latvia at WJC

The NHL Network will air every game of the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Moncton, New Brunswick.
It includes comprehensive coverage of the United States National Junior Team, which will play the first of four preliminary-round games in Group B against Latvia at Avenir Centre in Moncton on Monday (4 p.m. ET). The United States also will play Slovakia (Dec. 28), Switzerland (Dec. 29) and Finland (Dec. 31). The playoff round begins Jan. 2.
Longtime NCAA hockey analyst Dave Starman, who will handle the broadcasts along with Stephen Nelson and Jon Rosen, will give his three keys to victory for the United States before each of its games during the 11-day tournament.

"The biggest challenge for the United States as the World Juniors gets underway is just getting started," Starman said. "They have played two exhibition games, but the bright lights go on Monday and how players react to it is always hard to predict."
Here are Starman's 3 keys to victory for the United States against Latvia:
1. Mbereko's return
"Kaiden Mbereko (2023 draft eligible) is the first returning starter for the U.S. in goal since Jack Campbell in 2011 and 2012. Goaltending is one of those positions where experience can be a huge factor. Campbell was really good in his two starting years despite how bad the United States was in 2012 (they won the relegation round and finished seventh). When we last saw Mbereko, he was not having a great night against Czechia in the quarterfinal round in August. Since then, he's been in Colorado Springs working on his game and it's shown in a tremendous first half with Colorado College of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (14 games, 6-6, one tie, 2.26 goals-against average, .927 save percentage, three shutouts). With Kris Mayotte and Peter Mannino, two former goalies, both on staff at CC, he's getting all the work and insight needed to become a big factor this time around."
2. Managing minutes, establishing roles
"If your star players on their club teams aren't willing and enthusiastically accept a bottom-six role, less playing time, no power-play time ... your team is on life support from Day One. On a drive from a Livonia, Michigan, bowling alley in mid-December with coach Rand Pecknold, we were talking about past World Junior tournaments, and I offered to him that getting the bottom seven to buy in, give them minutes to eat early on, so then your big guns have energy in the playoff rounds, are huge components to win this. Legs feed the wolf."

3. Defending well
"I remember sitting with the late Tim Taylor in Edmonton at the 2012 WJC, at a time when the United States was 1-1 heading into a must-win game with a defense corps that, as a group, was under-performing. Coach Taylor said to me in gallows humor, 'Well, our defense is big, so maybe we can just make it harder for people to go around us.' This is not the case here. In an age where every NHL team has a top-four where everyone is 6-foot, the U.S. corps is led, size-wise, by
Luke Hughes
(New Jersey Devils) at 6-foot-2 and
Ryan Chesley
(Washington Capitals) is 6-foot. After that, it's 5-foot-something. In the quarterfinal-round loss in August, Czechia exposed the U.S. in that area. The Czechs were better on pucks, dominated the neutral zone with their size and length, and owned the net-front. Is there enough snarl in front of Mbereko to make sure he sees the puck and isn't facing second and third kicks at the can? We will see."
Photos: Rena Laverty/USA Hockey
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