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NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. National Team weekly report

March 29, 2004 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


UNITED STATES NATIONAL UNDER-18 TEAM
The U.S. Under-18 Team heads for Minsk, Belarus for the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, April 8-18, 2004.




IIHF WORLD UNDER 18 CHAMPIONSHIP
Group A Group B
USA Slovakia
Canada Russia
Sweden Czech Republic
Belarus Finland
Denmark Norway

2004 UNITED STATES U-18 NATIONAL TEAM SCHEDULE
April 8th Denmark vs. US
April 10th USA vs. Sweden
April 12th USA vs. Belarus
April 13th Canada vs. USA
April 15th Quarterfinals (A2 vs B3);(B2 vs. A3)
April 16th Semifinals (A1 vs. B2-A3 winner);(B1 vs. A2-B3 winner)
April 18th Medal Games

UNITED STATES NATIONAL UNDER-17 TEAM
The U.S. Under-17 Team earned a 5-1 win over the Toledo IceDiggers, to finish with a 20-18-7 record in the North American Hockey League. With the U-18 record of 8-3 the USNTDP finished with a 28-21-7 record in NAHL play. The above .500 record is a program first for the USNTDP in the NAHL and the team qualified for the NAHL playoffs for the first time since 1999-2000.






PLAYOFF BOUND!
The U.S. Under-17 Team will begin its best-of-five playoff series against the Soo Kewadin Casino Indians on, Friday, April 2, 2004. The first two games of the series will be in Sault Ste. Marie, MI with the follow-up to the Friday game on Saturday, April 3, 2004.

The US Team will play game three at home on Thursday, April 8, 2004 at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. Game four, if needed, will be Friday, April 9, 2004 at the Cube. If a game five is necessary it will be in Sault Ste. Marie, MI on April 10th

Final NAHL North Standings
TEAM GP W L RT PTS PCT.
*Soo 56 44 6 6 94 .839
*Jr. Blues 56 34 18 4 72 .643
*Cleveland 56 31 20 5 67 .598
*USA 56 28 21 7 63 .563
Youngstown 56 28 20 7 63 .563
Toledo 56 13 38 5 31 .277
*Qualified for playoffs

PREVIOUS WEEK RECAP
Wednesday, March 24 – Toledo 1, US-17 5

The U.S. Under-17 Team made a strong claim for the fourth and final playoff position in the NAHL North Division as it blew away the Toledo IceDiggers, 5-1, on Wednesday (March 24) at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. With their regular season now over, the U-17's hold a two-point advantage over the Youngstown PHANTOMS, which has two games left to play this weekend on the road against the Cleveland Barons.

The US Team generated all the offense it would need during a 2:18 span late in the first period when it notched three goals. The U-17's scored two more times for good measure during the second period. In total, 13 players tallied at least one point. Jason Lawrence (Saugus, Mass.) scored the game-winning tally and was also the only player with multiple points (1-1-2). In net, Jeff Frazee (Burnsville, Minn.) made 24 saves and was just 21 seconds away from a shutout when Toledo finally solved him late in the third period.

Matt Kaiser (Bloomington, Minn.) opened the scoring at 15:03 of the first period after David Inman (San Diego, Calif.) kept a bouncing puck in the zone along the boards and found him (Kaiser) open backdoor for a tip in. Just 46 seconds later, Lawrence made it 2-0 off a feed from behind the net courtesy of Dan Fardig (Ann Arbor, Mich.). Chris Cahill upped the score to 3-0 when he snapped a shot five-hole coming down the right wing at 17:21.

The US boys showed no signs of letting up during the second period and continued to attack the Toledo defense. Nick Foligno (Hummelstown, PA) cashed in on an easy rebound opportunity at 11:55 to extend the lead to 4-0. With 2:49 remaining in the middle frame Ryan Stoa (Bloomington, Minn.) blasted a shot from the top of the right circle past the Toledo netminder.

WEDNESDAY – Toledo @ US-17
TEAM SCORING PIM PP SHOT W/L Goalie
Toledo 0-0-1 2 0-2 25 Marriot (4-7), Kearney (19-21)
US-17 3-2-0 4 0-1 28 Frazee (24-25)



WEDNESDAY – Toledo @ US-17
Scoring
Toledo: Watson (G), Bihn (A), Scalici (A)
USA: J. Lawrence (GWG, A), Kaiser (G), Stoa (G), Cahill (G), Foligno (G), Inman (A), Felde (A), Fardig (A), Burns (A), Mueller (A), Birnstill (A), Fraser (A), MacVoy (A)

ALUMNI NEWS
PATRICK EAVES (BC) AND JIM HOWARD (MAINE) HONORED BY HOCKEY EAST -More-

DID YOU KNOW?
53 former US National Team Development Program players appeared in the NCAA Tournament this past weekend.
Check out the U.S. National Team Statistics

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North American Hockey League Stories from March 29, 2004


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