USA's Chase De Leo scores against Finland's Ville Husso during the shootoutGraham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Chase De Leo scored the game winner in a shootout as the United States downed the defending champion Finland on the opening day of the world junior hockey championships in Montreal.
Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring for the Finns less than 90 seconds into the first period. Alex Tuch notched the equalizer for the Americans on the power-play at 13:54. Those two goals stood up through the rest of regulation and overtime.
In the shootout, Finnish captain Artturi Lehkonen was the only one to beat U.S. goalie Thatcher Demko, a draft pick of the Vancouver Canucks, while Jack Eichel and De Leo, a Jets draft pick, had the goals for the Americans. Eichel also picked up an assist on the U.S. goal in the first when he played the puck off the boards to himself before feeding Tuch with a perfect pass.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game," said Eichel, a top prospect in the 2015 NHL draft. "They're the defending champs, and you've got to give them a lot of credit. They played a very close-checking game. It's really good for us to get the win. Hopefully, we can build off that and get some confidence."
Ville Husso stopped 36 shots for Finland. He started in place of last year's gold medal hero Jusse Saros. Demko made 28 saves, and stopped Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Kasperi Kapanen in the shootout to secure the victory.
"I thought we got better as the game went on," Demko said. "It's a good starting point, and something we can work forward from."
Finland will face Slovakia on Saturday while the United States meet Germany on Sunday.
Files from the Associated Press were used in this report