NAHL U.S. National Team

Late Goal Leads Mahoning Valley Past U.S. National Under-17 Team

Published on September 29, 2006 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The U.S. National Under-17 Team lost its home opener tonight by a score of 5-4 to the Mahoning Valley Phantoms of the North American Hockey League at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

The U.S. National Under-17 Team started quickly with three first period tallies to set the early offensive pace. The opening goal for Team USA came on the power-play when Jordan Schroeder (Prior Lake, Minn.) fed defenseman Ryan Hegarty (Arlington, Mass.) in the slot. Hegarty made no mistake as he buried a wrist shot over the catching glove of Phantom's goaltender Ryan Zapolski to give the National Team a 1-0 advantage 5:47 into the frame. Danny Kristo (Eden Prairie, Minn.) then added a pair of goals, his second and third on the season, to give Team USA a 3-0 lead after one period of play. Kristo's first tally of night came off a spectacular individual effort in which he was able to weave past a duo of Mahoning Valley defenders in front on the net and jam home the puck for the goal. For an encore, Kristo added his second goal of the period at the 17:40 mark with defenseman Grant Scott (Sewickley, Pa.) collecting the assist.

The second period opened with the Phantoms notching a goal early off the stick of Miles Winter to make the score 3-1. Team USA responded with a short-handed goal when David Wohlberg (South Lyon, Mich.) snuck behind the Phantoms defense for a breakaway goal. Mahoning Valley added a goal late in the stanza to close the gap to 4-2 heading into the final period.

It was all Phantoms in the third period with goals coming at 6:46, 12:28, and the game winner with 39 seconds remaining when Winters corralled a clearing attempt and was able to sneak the puck past Team USA netminder Nick Maricic (Alta Loma, Calif.).

"Tonight is only a negative for us if we don't learn from the mistakes we made. We are a young team, therefore there are a lot of lessons that are out there to be learned. Tomorrow we get another chance to come out and prove we can play strong for a full 60 minutes. We will be ready tomorrow night."

The U.S. National Under-17 Team will try to split the weekend series with Mahoning Valley tomorrow night at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. EDT.

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North American Hockey League Stories from September 29, 2006


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