NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. National Under-18 Team Tops Fairbanks, 7-4

Published on September 19, 2008 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


BLAINE, Minn. - Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.) notched three points (2-1) as the U.S. National Under-18 Team defeated the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, 7-4, here tonight in its second game at the sixth annual North American Hockey League Showcase.

Team USA jumped out to an early lead at 3:15 of the opening stanza when Chris Brown (Flower Mound, Texas) redirected a Nick Mattson (Chanhassen, Minn.) shot past netminder Phil Cook. David Valek (Orem, Utah) doubled the U.S. lead at 4:36 when he stole the puck from a Fairbanks defensemen and fired it into the top-right corner. Michael Benedict cut the Ice Dogs' deficit in half with a wrist shot over the glove of goaltender Brandon Maxwell (Winter Park, Fla.). Shore tallied at 16:50 to regain the two-goal lead for Team USA.

In the second frame, Fairbanks narrowed the gap after Austin Block scored at 1:45. Team USA answered back once again after Jeremy Morin (Auburn, N.Y.) took Kenny Ryan's (Franklin Village, Mich.) feed, deked to the right and slid the puck under a sprawling Cook at 4:24.

Just 46 seconds into the final frame, Mattson fired a wrist shot from the left point over the blocker of Cook. Kevin Lynch (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) gave the U.S. a 6-2 advantage just 49 seconds later with a wrap-around goal. Fairbanks answered back at the 2:38 mark to cut the deficit to three goals. Block added his second tally at 6:30 to make it a 6-4 game. After back-and-forth action for much of the period, Shore iced the game with an empty-net goal at 17:27 to account for the 7-4 final.

Maxwell made 19 saves to earn the win.

The U.S. National Under-18 Team returns to action Friday against the Alexandria Blizzard at 8:00 p.m. CST.

NOTES: Team USA out shot Fairbanks by a 48-23 margin ... Nick Mattson (1-1--2), Jeremy Morin (1-1--2) and William Wrenn (Anchorage, Alaska/0-2--2) each recorded two points. Both National Team Development Program squads are participating at the NAHL Showcase. It is the first year both teams have been at the event at the same time.

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North American Hockey League Stories from September 19, 2008


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