NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. National Under-17 Team Rallies For 3-2 Win Over Slovakia

Published on November 6, 2006 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


ANN ARBOR, Michigan - Forward David Wohlberg's (South Lyon, Mich.) power play goal at 17:04 of the third period lifted the U.S. National Under-17 Team to a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over Slovakia in the first preliminary-round game for both teams at the Phantom Fireworks Four Nations Tournament tonight.

Wohlberg buried the puck after receiving a backdoor pass from teammate Vinny Saponari (Powder Springs, Ga.) with Slovakia's Tomas Sykora off for holding.

"It was a good start to the tournament for us," said Team USA Head Coach John Hynes. "We got better each period and really kept our composure after falling behind early."

Slovakia jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes, despite the United States having the territorial advantage. The first Slovak goal came at 10:20 and was credited to Martin Sloboda after his shot from the side of the right faceoff circle was stopped by U.S. netminder Nick Maricic (Alta Loma, Calif.), but rebounded into the net off a Team USA defender in front. The visitors' second goal came on a 2-on-1 rush with Tomas Hricina putting home the rebound off an initial shot by Milan Kivader.

The U.S. National Under-17 Team outshot Slovkia 11-3 in the second stanza and scored the the only two goals of the period. Michael Cichy's (New Hartford, Conn.) wraparound shot went off the post and in at 2:36 to cut the Slovakia lead to 2-1 before Robbie Czarnik (Washington, Mich.) fired one in along the ice at 5:40 after rushing the puck nearly the length of the ice.

Maricic finished with 15 saves, while Ciliak had 32 stops.

Team USA (1-0-0) will face Russia (1-0-0) tomorrow (Nov. 7) in the second of its three preliminary-round games. Opening faceoff is set for 7:00 p.m. (EST) at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

NOTES: Each of the four teams in the Phantom Fireworks Four Nations Tournament will face each other in the preliminary round. The top two teams will play in the gold-medal game on Friday (Nov. 10) at 7 p.m. (EST), while the other two squads will play in the bronze-medal game the same day at 3:30 p.m. ... Slovkia's Phantom Fireworks Player of the Game was goaltender Marek Ciliak, while Team USA's recipient was forward David Wohlberg (South Lyon, Mich.) ... Slovakia pulled netminder Marek Ciliak in favor of an extra attacker for the game's final :30 but was unable to gain the equalizer ... In the first game of the day, Russia downed Switzerland by a count of 8-3.

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North American Hockey League Stories from November 6, 2006


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