ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Behind a 58-save effort by netminder John Gibson (Pittsburgh, Pa.), the U.S. National Under-17 Team downed the Tri-City Storm, 3-1, here tonight to earn its first victory in the United States Hockey League.
"We're extremely proud of the effort our team brought tonight and its great to be in the win column," said Ron Rolston, head coach of the U.S. National Under-17 Team. "Our next challenge will be to bring the same effort in back-to-back games."
Team USA came out of the first period with a 1-0 lead thanks to a goal off the stick of Zac Larraza (Scottsdale, Ariz.) at the 15:18 mark. The tally came after Michael Vilardo (Geneva, Ill.) stole the puck from a Storm defender, put a shot on net and Larraza followed up the rebound and slid it past a diving Steven Bolton. Gibson stopped all 16 shots he faced in the first 20 minutes.
With just 2:13 left to play in the second period, Travis Boyd (Hopkins, Minn.) broke into the Tri-City zone and fed a wide-open Andy Ryan (Brighton, Mich.) who wristed a shot past Bolton and into the upper-left corner from the top of the right faceoff circle to double the U.S. advantage. Gibson turned aside 25 shots in the second period to keep the Storm off the board.
Tri-City answered just 3:34 into the third stanza after Anthony DeCenzo picked up a rebound and snapped a shot past Gibson from the middle slot. Both teams traded quality chances throughout the period, with neither club able to find the back of the net. With 1:08 to play, the Storm pulled Bolton in favor of an extra-attacker. Team USA was able to break out of its zone as Tyler Biggs (Cincinnati, Ohio) sent the puck deep into the Storm's end. Blake Pietila (Brighton, Mich.) out skated the Tri-City defense, picked up the puck on the left side of the cage and fired a shot into the open goal from a bad angle with just 21 seconds to play to ice the 3-1 victory. Gibson made 17 more saves in the period to earn his first career NTDP win.
The U.S. National Under-17 Team will have a quick turnaround as it meets the Fargo Force at 3:05 p.m. EST Saturday at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. The game is part of an NTDP doubleheader, with the U.S. National Under-18 Team taking on the Storm at 7:05 p.m. EST.
NOTES: Blake Pietila notched his sixth goal of the season to tie him with Ryan Haggerty (Stamford, Conn.) for the team lead... John Gibson's save percentage jumped from.861 to.910 after tonight's game... Andy Ryan notched his first career NTDP goal... With the win, the NTDP is currently on a three-game winning streak within the USHL. The U.S. National Under-18 Team won both of its games last weekend... The U.S. National Under-17 Team has now won four straight games, with the prior three having come at the 2009 Under-17 Four Nations Cup in Trnava, Slovakia.
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