Cole Spicer (Grand Forks, N.D.) opened the floodgates with the game's first marker at 11:01 of the opening period. The play started with Brady Berard (East Greenwich, R.I.) firing a pass to lead Ryan Leonard (Amherst, Mass.) into the offensive zone. He collected, stopped on a dime and centered a feed to Spicer, who flicked a quick wrister far-side past Nanooks goalie, Daniel Allin. 

Three and a half minutes later, the U18s doubled their lead when Frank Nazar (Mount Clemens, Mich.) redirected a feed from Isaac Howard (Hudson, Wis.) in front of the net through the goaltender's five-hole. Will Smith (Lexington, Mass.) picked up the extra assist on the 2-0 score. 

Alaska's Arvils Bergmanis answered quickly to put the Nanooks on the scoreboard. The defenseman drove down the right wing and his centering attempt got stuck between the pads of Dylan Silverstein (Calabasas, Calif.) and trickled in to make it 2-1. 

Team USA's Charlie Stramel (Rosemount, Minn.) restored the two-goal lead before the end of the period with a slick deke on a breakaway before finishing with a backhand chip over the right pad of Allin. Lane Hutson (North Barrington, Ill.) made a great play in the defensive zone to dig the puck free and Cutter Gauthier (Scottsdale, Ariz.) made the breakout pass to collect helpers on Stramel's fifth of the season. 

Gauthier netted the lone goal of the second period when he found a loose puck in the slot off a failed Alaska clearing attempt and ripped a wrister over the shoulder for his NTDP-leading 27th marker of the year and a 4-1 advantage. 

Alaska's Brady Risk balanced a bouncing puck and roofed a shot in the top-right corner of the net to cut the Nanooks' deficit to 4-2 less than five minutes into the third period.