NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. Nat'l U17 Team Upends Motor City, 6-2

Published on March 27, 2009 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


TAYLOR, Mich. - Michael Mersch (Park Ridge, Ill.) netted two goals and Emerson Etem (Long Beach, Calif.) and Austin Czarnik (Washington, Mich.) each recorded three points as the U.S. National Under-17 Team downed the Motor City Machine, 6-2, here tonight.

Mersch opened the scoring at 4:06 after he tipped Kevin Clare's (New Rochelle, N.Y.) center-point shot through netminder Joe Moore's legs for a power-play goal. Motor City answered back just 1:36 later with a goal from Adam Sponseller. Bryan Rust (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) made it 2-1 after he walked out from the left corner and put the puck past Moore from the high slot at 17:38.

In the second period, Mersch added his second power-play goal after he slid a shot past Moore from the top of the faceoff circles just 56 seconds in. Nick Shore (Denver, Colo.) made it 4-1 after he took a pass from Etem and slipped it between the pads of Moore at 3:38. Czarnik added a goal at 11:24 after he chipped in a shot up and over Moore. Just 21 seconds later Etem tipped Czarnik's feed past Moore to make it 6-1. Motor City made it 6-2 after Trevor John tallied at 17:38.

Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the third period, allowing Team USA to come away with the 6-2 win.

Maxwell made 23 saves to earn the victory.

The U.S. National Under-17 Team returns to action on home ice tomorrow as it takes on the Motor City Machine at 7 p.m. ET.

NOTES: With the win, the U.S. National Under-17 Team pulled within two points of division-leader Mahoning Valley Phantoms, which plays its last game tonight. Team USA has two games remaining on its regular-season schedule ... Emerson Etem (1-2--3), Austin Czarnik (1-2--3), Michael Mersch (2-0--2), Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill./0-2--2), Nick Shore (1-1--2) each posted multi-point efforts.

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North American Hockey League Stories from March 27, 2009


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