Belmont Hill’s own Teddy Stiga scored the golden goal for the United States. Stiga’s goal was the overtime game-winner against Finland that gave the United States its second consecutive gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championships. Mr. Phinney, who coached Stiga in his one year at Belmont Hill, said, “I knew he would be successful because of the way he loves the game. He is always thinking about hockey, watching films, and playing whenever he can.”
The United States breezed through their first through its first two games of pool play capturing two victories over Germany and Latvia with a combined score of 15-6. They hit their first road bump of the tournament when they dropped their third pool game 4-3 in overtime. However, they were able to respond with a 4-1 win over their archrival Canada in their final pool game which gave them first place in the group. In the quarterfinals against Switzerland, the United States once again cruised to an easy victory winning 7-2. The U.S. then defeated Czechia 4-1 in the semifinals before getting their revenge on Finland by erasing a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3 in overtime to capture gold.
Stiga came to Belmont Hill as a freshman in 2021 and immediately made a massive impact on the hockey team that fell in the NEPSAC Elite Eight Championship game to Salisbury. In his only season at Belmont Hill, Stiga tallied 21 points in 23 games with seven goals and 14 assists. Following his freshman season at Belmont Hill, Stiga left to play for the United States National Development Team (USNTDP), a two-year development program for the best U17 and U18 hockey players in America where they play against USHL and NCAA Division One teams. Following an extremely successful second season with the USNTDP where he tallied 79 points, Stiga was selected in the second round of the NHL draft by the Nashville Predators. Stiga is currently a freshman at Boston College where he is playing both forward and defense for the Eagles. The Panel would like to congratulate Teddy Stiga and the United States World Juniors on their gold medals.