Dalibor Dvorsky, Robert Baco and Filip Mesar scored in a 3:19 span in the second period and Slovakia beat the U.S. 6-3 on Wednesday in the world junior championship.

Libor Nemec, Peter Repcik and Alex Ciernik also scored for Slovakia and captain Simon Nemec — the No. 2 overall NHL pick by New Jersey this year, had three assists in the Group B game.

"After this game, you can't be tired," Simon Nemec said after playing a game-high 25:31. "A lot of good things in this game."

Adam Gajan made 33 saves to help Slovakia rebound from an opening 5-2 loss to Finland on Tuesday.

"I thought their goaltender was the best player on the ice tonight," U.S. coach Rand Pecknold of Quinnipiac said. "That said, we need to tighten things and our guys know that."

• Finland bounces back with steady win over Slovakia at world juniors

• Czech Republic stuns Canada in men's world juniors opener

Tyler Boucher of the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's scored twice for United States. Michigan forward Gavin Brindley added a goal and Colorado College goalie Kaidan Mbereko made 20 saves. The Americans opened Monday with a 5-2 victory over Latvia.

The U.S. will face Switzerland on Thursday.

"I think we're going to have a bounce-back here," Boucher said. "We're hungry."