2 Phantoms to IIHF World Championship
April 25, 2013 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Adirondack Phantoms News Release
Two Adirondack Phantoms players will be representing their home countries at the 2013 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship next month. Cal Heeter (G) was named to the U.S. Men's National Team earlier today. And Marcel Noebels (F) has indicated he has been invited to potentially play for Team Germany at the tournament as well although the team's roster is not finalized yet.
15 players were named to Team USA today including two goalies. Cal Heeter will be joined by Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning as the team's netminders. Most of the players on Team USA have played in the NHL as well as on previous national teams. Heeter is just one of three players on the roster who has not played in the NHL and is joined by only one other player (Bobby Butler) who is making a National Team debut.
Cal Heeter publicly expressed his pride at the selection on his twitter account, "So excited to represent USA at the World Championships in Finland! Truly an honor and a great opportunity. Can't wait for this experience!"
The 24-year-old from St. Louis spent most of his rookie season with the Adirondack Phantoms where he played in 32 games going 12-16-3 with a .908 saves percentage and 2.92 goals-against average. The former Ohio State University Buckeye also spent part of this season with the Trenton Titans of the ECHL where he played in eight games going 3-3-0, .900, 3.18. Heeter was signed by the Flyers as a free agent last spring following the completion of his four-year career with the Buckeyes.
Heeter, 24, previously defeated his Team USA teammate Ben Bishop in one of the best goaltending-duels of the Phantoms' season on January 11, 2013. Adirondack prevailed 3-2 in a shootout victory at the Binghamton Senators (where Bishop was playing at the time before he was traded to the Tampa Bay organization). Both Heeter and Bishop made several spectacular saves through 65 minutes as Binghamton outshot Adirondack 46-33. Then Heeter was a perfect 5-for-5 in the shootout before Bishop finally surrendered one.
Marcel Noebels is a 21-year-old from Toenisvorst, Germany who has previous played for Team Germany IIHF national teams in the Under-18 and Under-20 tournaments. In his rookie season, Noebels scored a combined 22 goals and 29 assists for 51 points between Adirondack and Trenton in 74 total games. Noebels scored 13-10-23 in 43 games with the Phantoms in the second-half of the season. He began the year with Trenton playing in 31 games and scoring 11-19-30.
Noebels scored his first professional goal against fellow countryman and teammate on previous German national teams Philipp Grubauer when both were in the ECHL at the time. Noebels with Trenton tallied against Grubauer with Reading on October 17, 2012.
Noebels was a fourth-round selection of the Flyers in 2011 out of the Western Hockey League where he played for the Seattle Thunderbirds and Portland Winterhawks.
The IIHF World Championship tournament takes place from May 3-19 in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. NBC Sports Network will air all Team USA games.
Team USA opens their tournament in Helsinki on Saturday, May 4 at 5:15 a.m. (EDT) taking on Austria in the round-robin pool-play of the opening round.
Team USA is in the same group with Germany and the two teams will play each other on Sunday, May 12 at 9:15 a.m. (EDT) in Helsinki.
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