It’s come full circle for Greg Moore at the IIHF World Men’s Under-18 Championship.
The head coach of Team USA is trying to lead his skilled group back to the top of the podium at the event.
If the Americans win gold in Texas, it would mark their 12th U18 championship, by far the most of any country.
“I’ve been really happy with the progression of the group,” said Moore. “I feel like every game, we’re getting stronger, guys are stepping up in different roles, guys are filling in in other roles, guys are willing to do the job that’s needed, kind of that ‘next man up’ mentality.”
Moore knows what it takes to win at this level. He played in the World U18s in 2002 in Piestany and Trnava, Slovakia, overcoming a significant shoulder injury earlier that season to help Team USA win gold at the event.
It marked the United States’ first gold medal at a world-level event since the Miracle On Ice group captured the top prize at the 1980 Olympics.
Back in 2002, the U18s followed a round-robin format and each team played eight games. Team USA won its first six games over Belarus, Ukraine, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Canada (outscoring opponents 43-8), before dropping a 1-0 final to Czech Republic. That set the stage for Team USA’s final game against Russia and the Americans needing to win by two goals or more to win the gold medal.
In the third period, ahead by one, Moore recalls USA head coach Mike Eaves calling a timeout and asking his players what they wanted to do. Pull the goalie and go for the win (or, potentially, not win a medal) or play it conservatively and settle for silver.
“We were ahead by one goal, he wanted to know from us, are we going to pull the goalie and try to win by two and get the gold or guarantee having a medal around our neck,” said Moore. “Or we could have pulled the goalie and they score, then there’s no medal. There could have been quite the swing on what the outcome was.
“But it was unanimous. Everyone is like, ‘pull the goalie, we’re going for a gold medal. That’s what we’re here for.’ Obviously, we were fortunate to pull the goalie, score with an extra attacker and win by two. It was a really dramatic finish given that format and what we needed to do in that moment. Something I’ll never forget.”
Moore and that core group of players really kickstarted the Americans’ long-term success at this event and others. The 1984-born American players were the first to win gold at Hockey Canada’s World Under-17 Challenge, the World U18s and, in 2004, the first to win the World Junior Championship.
“There’s a lot of pride that we took at those events and what our group was able to accomplish and hopefully pave the way for future birth years to be able to do it,” said Moore.
Now, as head coach of an American team trying to win the World U18s on home soil, Moore draws on his experience but is adamant that each group of players, each year and each tournament are unique. Moore says he doesn’t really like sharing stories from his playing days with USA’s players of today. This is about them.
“As a coach, you always rely on those stories and those experiences to help you navigate helping the team,” said Moore. “But we keep it about them and what they’re going through and what their experience is in the moment. What they’re going through, how we can help them and let the past years be in the past and stay in the moment.”
Moore isn’t the only American coach that can draw on past experiences to help navigate through a tough tournament. Assistant coach Ryan Hayes played in two World U18s, winning gold in 2006 and silver in 2007. Another one of Moore’s assistants – Chad Kolarik – played in the 2004 U18s and helped Team USA win silver. Kolarik also represented USA at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
This is Moore’s first crack as head coach of the World U18 team, having served as an assistant in 2017 when the Americans won gold in Slovakia. He was on USA’s coaching staff for the 2024 IIHF World Championship as well.
Moore has guided the Americans to a 4-0 record in the preliminary round and a quarterfinal win over Latvia. Next up is the semifinals against Sweden on Friday. Although he expects each and every team to push his players, Moore says a lot of the focus has been on what his players do and what they can control, rather than being overly concerned with what the opponent brings.
“Our speed. We are a really fast team, whether it be tactically in transition or just individual speed with guys like (Cullen) Potter and (LJ) Mooney and (Jacob) Kvasnicka,” said Moore. “I can go up and down the lineup with a lot of fast guys who are able to drive wide and get to the net and be really direct. And then you add the skill in. When you’re fast, when you have skill and you’re quick in transition as a group, that is really hard to play against. The other thing that our group has really prided themselves on for a long time is just how physical we are, how hard we are to play against in the physicality piece of the game, offensively and defensively. We’re not out there trying to beat you cute. Guys go out there and play hard hockey.”