NAHL U.S. National Team

Continuing to roll

Published on November 26, 2004 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Eric Johnson (Bloomington, Minn.) fired a laser from the blueline to tie the Cleveland Barons at three all late in the second period as the United States Under-17 Team battled all night and came away with the ‘W' in a shootout in NAHL North Division action against the Cleveland Barons.

The Barons opened the scoring at 5:45 of the first period as Nick Biondo (Cleveland, Ohio) capitalized on a U.S. turnover. Ryan Flynn (Lino Lakes, Minn.) tied the game with his seventh goal of the year at 14:13 with Chris Atkinson (Sparta, N.J.) and Johnson picking up assists on the play. The euphoria of tying the game was short lived when, just seven seconds after the Flynn goal, Kurt Kivisto (Brighton, Mich.) gathered a center ice face off win by Jeremy Stocker (Syracuse, N.Y.) broke into the U.S. defensive zone and bested eventual game winning goaltender Joe Palmer (Yorkville, N.Y.) giving the Barons a one goal advantage.

With just thirty-six ticks left on the first period clock Rhett Rakhshani (Huntington Beach, Calif.) tallied his third power-play goal (seventh overall) to knot the game at two. A Cleveland goal at 3:58 in the second period set-up the game-tying Johnson score.

Johnson drifted to the center of the ice, just inside the Cleveland blueline, as the puck was cycled to the right point and an awaiting Kevin Montgomery (Rochester, N.Y.). Sliding backward creating separation from a Cleveland defender, who had started making his way to Montgomery, Johnson was now poised at the left point coiled and ready unleash a cannon shot. A perfectly timed Montgomery pass to Johnson while he had started his shooting motion gave the Barons goaltender no chance to stop the puck let alone see it.

A back and forth third and overtime period led to a shoot out were Rakshani, Flynn and Luke Popko (Skillman, N.J.) scored and Palmer stopped four of the six shots faced to give the U.S. its ninth straight victory.

Check out the U.S. National Team Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



North American Hockey League Stories from November 26, 2004


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central