Colorado College freshmen Kaidan Mbereko and Noah Laba have been selected to the 25-player Team USA roster that will travel to Moncton, New Brunswick, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the IIHF 2023 World Junior Championship.
 
Mbereko and Laba were two of 32 players that participated at an evaluation camp at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich., this week.
 
Mbereko is making his fourth appearance on an international roster. He posted a 2-1 record with a 2.85 GAA and .927 save percentage in three games for the silver-medalist Team USA at the 2021 IIHF Under-18 World Championship, then backstopped three of the 2022 World Junior Championship squad's four victories in pool play before falling in the quarterfinals this past August. He was also on the roster for the original 2022 World Junior tournament, which was canceled in Dec. of 2021, due to COVID-19.
 
Laba, a 2022 fourth-round draft pick of the New York Rangers, is making his first appearance on a U.S. National Junior Team. He is currently tied for third on the team in scoring with 11 points (7g,4a) this season for the Tigers.
 
Team USA will play a pair of pre-tournament games against Finland (Dec. 19) and Sweden (Dec. 21) before opening pool play on Monday, Dec. 26 against Latvia, beginning at 2 p.m. (MT). Every Team USA game will be televised on NHL Network.