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NAHL U.S. National Team

U.S. Nat'l Under-18 Team Falls to Wayne State in Overtime, 6-5

February 2, 2007 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


DETROIT, Mich. - Special teams took centerstage at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Colesium tonight as the Wayne State Warriors were able to outlast the U.S. National Under-18 Team to earn a 6-5 overtime victory. The National Team and the Warriors combined for eight power-play goals on the evening.

Wayne State opened the scoring 54 seconds into the game when Nate Higgins buried a one-timer feed past U.S. netminder Josh Unice (Toledo, Ohio). Team USA rebounded as it converted twice on a Wayne State five-minute penalty mid-way through the opening frame to gain a 2-1 advantage. First, Ryan Hayes (Syracuse, N.Y.) took the puck off a rebound from a Teddy Ruth (Naperville, Ill.) point blast that missed the net, but came off the backboards and deposited it past Warriors netminder Will Hooper. One minute and 23 seconds later Jimmy Hayes (Dorchester, Mass.) deflected a blueline blast from linemate James vanRiemsdyk (Middletown, N.J.) over Hooper's shoulder to give the U.S. the 2-1 lead.

U.S. defenseman Ian Cole (Ann Arbor, Mich.) gave the U.S. the 3-1 advantage 7:37 into the second period when he walked in from the blueline and slid the puck past Hooper as he was being hauled down in the slot. Wayne State made it a 3-2 contest 5:09 later in the second frame on a power-play goal by Higgins.

The squads combined to score five goals in the third period with four of the markers coming by way of the power-play. Wayne State evened the game at 3-3 with a third goal from Higgins at the 4:24 mark. Another Wayne State power-play strike gave the Warriors a 4-3 lead until vanRiemsdyk beat Hooper once again to even the score at four. Jimmy Hayes capped off his hat-trick when he deflected a Kevin Shattenkirk (New Rochelle, N.Y.) blast from the blueline into the back of the net. With the aid of the man-advantage once again the Warriors answered with a Matt Krug goal with 1:06 to play in regulation.

At the 2:14 mark of the extra frame Krug's blueline blast, again on the power-play, beat Unice and Wayne State celebrated the 6-5 victory.

The U.S. National Under-18 Team will travel to Most, Czech Republic, next week to compete in the 2007 Under-18 Five Nations Tournament versus Russia, Finland, Sweden, and the host-nation Czech Republic.

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