ITHACA, N.Y. - In his hometown and against his future school, Andy Iles (Ithaca, N.Y.) stopped 39 shots including all 21 he saw in the third period as the U.S. National Under-18 Team outlasted No. 6-ranked Cornell University, 3-2, here tonight at Lynah Rink. Tonight's win was the first for the U.S. National Under-18 Team in five all-time meetings with the Big Red."This was a fun game to coach and a fun game for everyone on our side to be a part of," said Kurt Kleinendorst, head coach of the U.S. National Under-18 Team. "We played sharp, we battled and we did a lot of things well tonight."
Sean Whitney tallied the opening period's only goal when his wrist shot from the right point beat Iles at the 9:53 mark to give the Big Red a 1-0 lead.
Team USA answered back on the power play early in the second stanza when Justin Faulk's (South St. Paul, Minn.) wrist shot from the right point beat netminder Ben Scrivens inside the left post just 20 seconds into the middle period. Bryan Rust (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) gave the U.S. a 2-1 lead after he snapped home Jon Merrill 's (Brighton, Mich.) pass from behind the net on the right side at 11:10. With just 25 seconds to play in the period, Riley Nash tied the score for Cornell after he put a backhanded shot past Iles from between the faceoff circles.
In the final frame, Chase Balisy (Fullerton, Calif.) charged at a Cornell defender at the blue line allowing Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) to strip the puck, break into the Big Red's zone and slide a pass to Matthew Nieto (Long Beach, Calif.) who snapped a shot inside the right post to make it 3-2 just 3:45 into the period. After back-and-forth action for most of the third, Team USA found itself shorthanded with 1:50 to play in regulation. Cornell pulled Scrivens to give the Big Red a six-on-four advantage, but Iles and the U.S. penalty-killing unit were equal to the challenge, allowing Team USA to skate away with the 3-2 victory.
"Andy was focused and wanted to do well and he was very good tonight, obviously," Kleinendorst said of his goaltender. "Late in the game, he made some big saves. He was there when we need him to be."
The U.S. National Under-18 Team closes out its three-game trip to New York Sunday against Colgate University of ECAC Hockey at Starr Rink at 2 p.m. EDT.
NOTES: Andy Iles is verbally committed to attend Cornell University next season ... Jason Zucker's two points (0-2) paced Team USA ... Justin Faulk tallied his seventh goal and sixth power-play marker of the season, both team bests ... Team USA held Cornell scoreless on each of its five power plays ... Cornell University is ranked No. 6 in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll ... Team USA is now 1-3-1 all-time against the Big Red ... Tonight's game was played in front of an announced sellout crowd of 4,267 fans ... Team USA improved to 2-0-0 on its current three-game New York trip. The U.S. downed NCAA Division III-opponent Utica College Friday night, 10-2, in its first contest of the road trip ... The U.S. National Under-18 Team also improved to 3-3-0 against NCAA opponents so far this season. Team USA has played four nationally-ranked Division I teams, so far, during the 2009-10 campaign.
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