World Juniors history within reach for Erie’s Terrance
The USA’s Carey Terrance (ANA) is hoping to be a part of World Juniors history tonight.
With a win tonight against Finland, it would mark the first time in the program’s history they have won back-to-back World Juniors titles.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Terrance said. “We’ve worked hard all tournament for it, we earned it and we’re going to come in and win a gold medal.”
The Erie Otters forward has been a key contributor in 2025. In six games he’s scored twice and has averaged 13:00 of ice time a night while being a regular on the penalty kill.
It’s a stark contest from 12 months ago.
Terrance is already a World Juniors champion. But in Sweden last year, he didn’t see any ice time as he was an injury replacement.
This year, however, he’s been in the lineup every night.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “I got a lot of experience under my belt last year even though I didn’t play. I was lucky to go with the team over there but with the same coaches coming in I was familiar with how they want to play and how [head coach David Carle] wants to operate.”
Unfortunately, fellow CHL teammates in Barrie’s Sam Hillebrandt and Saginaw’s Joey Willis (NSH) have seen little to no ice time. Hillebrandt – who made two appearances last year and also owns a World Juniors gold medal – has been the team’s third goalie in 2025 while Willis has played two games where he’s tallied two assists.
“Me and Sam went through it together last year,” Terrance said. “It’s being a team player. Take your opportunity [as] it’s great to be part of this team and I had that feeling last year. It’s [about] being a team guy and doing whatever you can off the ice to help the team.”
The Americans topped Group A after they went 3-0-1 in the round-robin and outscored opponents 22-10. They cruised past Switzerland 7-2 in the quarterfinals before they dispatched Czechia 4-1 in Saturday’s semi-final.
Their one blemish this tournament was a 4-3 overtime loss to Finland on Dec. 29. Fittingly, they get the opportunity to avenge that defeat with gold on the line tonight.
“We had a tough game against them in the prelims,” Terrance said. “We know how they play. They’re a good team and we have to be ready. We have to stay off the penalty kill as they have a good power play.
“We’ve got to play them hard but stick to our game, getting pucks in and being hard on the forecheck and getting pucks around the net.”
