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NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. National Under-18 Team Shuts Down Finland, 4-0

November 10, 2006 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


PITEA, Sweden - The U.S. National Under-18 Team shutout Finland tonight, 4-0, in the opening game of the 2006 Under-18 Four Nations Tournament (Nov. 10-12) at the Kvarnvallen Ishall.

James vanRiemsdyk (Middletown. N.J.), Colin Wilson (Greenwich, Conn.) and Kevin Shattenkirk (New Rochele, N.Y.) all recorded two points in the victory and netminder Josh Unice (Toledo, Ohio) earned his first shutout of the season, stopping all 24 Finnish attempts.

Team USA came flying out of the gate to open the game and vanRiemsdyk gave the U.S. an early 1-0 lead when he was able to convert on a pass from Wilson 3:57 into the contest. The U.S. National Under-18 Team gained a 2-0 advantage when vanRiemsdyk found Shattenkirk with a backdoor pass on the power play. Shattenkirk proceeded to bury the puck past the Finnish netminder 13:48 into the opening frame to stake Team USA to a two-goal lead.

With just over eight minutes elapsed in the second frame the Team USA forecheck caused Finland to turn the puck over in its own end, allowing Justin Vaive (Buffalo, N.Y.) to gather in the loose puck and feed a wide-open Ryan Hayes (Syracuse, N.Y.) at the right circle. Hayes then buried a slapshot into the top-right corner of the net to give Team USA a 3-0 advantage.

Midway through the final frame Shattenkirk found Matt Rust (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) at the far blue line and sprung him on a breakaway. Rust beat the Finnish netminder was a backhand move to extend the U.S. lead to 4-0. Team USA was whistled for four minor penalties in the final 10 minutes, but the Unice and the U.S. penalty kill kept Finland off the scoreboard.

"Our guys played very well all the way through the line-up tonight," said U.S. Head Coach Ron Rolston (Fenton, Mich.). "We were able to utilize all four lines effectively and that will be key in our success during this tournament. Tonight we came out with a lot of intensity and we were able to sustain the attack throughout the game."

Team USA will face host nation Sweden tomorrow night at 5 p.m. (11 a.m. EST) in the second game of the three-game tournament. Sweden and the U.S. played to a tie on Wednesday (Nov. 8) in an exhibition match.

NOTES: Matt Rust was named the Best Player of the Game for the U.S. ... Tomorrow's match-up against Sweden will be broadcasted via the Internet starting at 10:45 a.m. EST at http://pitefm.se ... The Under-18 Four Nations tournament consists of Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and the United States.

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