NY Islanders center Brock Nelson ties Team USA scoring record at IIHF Tournament

The New York Islanders season has been over for weeks, but leading-scorer Brock Nelson has kept on playing - and scoring. The 32-year-old center from Warroad, MN, is representing Team USA at the 2024 Ice Hockey World Championship, an international tournament that runs through May 26th.

Representing his home country is nothing new for Nelson, who won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Juniors championship and was an alternate captain at the 2017 World Championships. On Sunday, he reached a personal milestone that puts him among the top international scorers for the Team USA in World Championship history.

During the team's 10-1 rout of Kazakhstan, Nelson scored his 19th career World Championship goal to give the Americas a 3-0 lead late in the first period. The goal tied Nelson with two players for the most World Championship goals in Team USA history. Bruce Mather set the record 75 years earlier during the 1949 championship, and Buzz Johnson totaled 19 goals in the 1950s.

Team USA is part of Group B and is currently in second place during the preliminary round with a 4-0-1-1 record, behind only undefeated Sweden. Having already qualified for the quarterfinals, they'll have one more tune-up against Latvia before the knockout stage of the tournament begins.

Nelson has led the Islanders in scoring for six straight seasons, finishing with 34 goals last year. The prior year, he tallied 36 and was named an All-Star for the first time. The 2010 1st round pick (30th overall) scored a career-best 37 during the 2021-22 season. He'll be entering the final season of a six-year contract extension he signed with the team after the 2018-19 season.