NAHL U.S. National Team

US National Team weekly report

Published on March 8, 2004 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
U.S. National Team News Release


UNITED STATES NATIONAL UNDER-18 TEAM
The U.S. Under-18 Team dropped a home contest to the Soo Kewadin Casino Indians Friday, March 5, 2004 at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube. Tom Fritsche and Phil Kessel scored for the for the US squad. In goal Billy Blase stopped 22 shots in his U-18 debut.

THIS WEEK'S ACTION
The U-18 will play the three road games in Montant this week. Friday and Saturday, March 12 and 13, 2004 against the Bozeman ICEDOGS and Sunday, March 14, 2004 against the Helena Bighorns.

PREVIOUS WEEK RECAP
Friday, March 5 – Soo Indians 3, USA-18 2
Three power-play goals by the Soo Indians gave them a,3-2, win over the U-18 team.. For the Indians, two goals within 53 seconds of each other at the beginning of second period set up their victory. Team USA's Tom Fritsche (Parma, Ohio) and Phil Kessel (Madison, Wisc.) recorded one goal each. In goal, Billy Blase (Santa Monica, Calif.) stopped 22 shots for USA.

USA earned its first goal when a shot by Fritsche navigated through traffic in front and found daylight to make the score 2-1.

After a flurry of alternating power plays to begin the third period, the Indians capitalized on an opportunity at 3:50 to make it 3-1. Matt Buha received a centering pass and fired a shot that went in and out of the top right corner of the goal.

At 7:47 of the third period, Kessel pulled USA to within one score when he blew by multiple defenders along the left edge and tucked the puck under the outstretched MacIntyre. Although Team USA had two more bouts on the man-advantage to finish off the game, its best chance came with about 20 seconds remaining. A high flip into the Soo zone bounced in the slot to the charging Gerbe. Open on the left side, Gerbe shot just wide left, allowing the Indians to clear the puck and ice the contest.

FRIDAY – SOO @ US-18
TEAM SCORING PIM PP SHOT W/L Goalie
Soo 0-2-1 20 3-6 25 MacIntyre (31-33)
U-18 0-1-1 16 0-5 33 Blase (22-25)

Scoring:
USA: Fritsche (G), Kessel (G), Lerg (A), Porter (A), Hagemo (A)
Soo: Paskaris (PPG), Bittle (PPG), Buha (PPG), Gutwald (A), Lutz (2A), Broughton (A), Flath (A)

UNITED STATES NATIONAL UNDER-17 TEAM
The U.S. Under-17 Team went 1-1 at home against the Soo Kewadin Casino Indians and the Springfield Jr. Blues. On Saturday, March 6th they fell to the Indians 4-2 and followed up with a 3-2, Sunday, March 7th victory over the Jr. Blues.

THIS WEEK'S ACTION
The U-17 team take to the road, Friday, March 12th and Saturday, March 13th against the Youngstown PHANTOMS in a match-up of teams battling for a playoff spot.

NAHL North Standings as of 3/8/04
TEAM GP W L RT PTS PCT.
*Soo 49 39 4 6 84 .857
*Jr.Blues 49 32 14 3 67 .684
Cleveland 49 26 19 4 56 .571
USA 50 24 20 6 54 .540
Youngstown 49 23 19 7 53 .541
Toledo 48 13 31 4 30 .313
*qualified for playoffs

PREVIOUS WEEK RECAP
Saturday, March 6 – Soo 4, US-17 2
The US U-17 Team fell to the Soo Indians defeated, 4-2 on Saturday afternoon. USA had a 1-0 advantage after the first period of play and a 2-1-edge midway through the second frame, but three unanswered goals, two in the third period, allowed the Indians to skate away with the victory.

Jason Lawrence (Saugus, Mass.) began the scoring with a marker at 6:31 of the first period. Seth Seidman (Milton, MA) and Matt Kaiser (Bloomington, MN) both earned assists on the play as Kaiser slid the puck to Lawrence for a quick one-timer from the slot. The Soo knotted the score at 1-1 on Tom Kolar's first of two goals. After a flurry of shots in front, Kolar chipped the puck into the net at 7:51 of the second period.

The second US goal came on the power play as David Inman (San Diego, CA) and Mark Mitera (Livonia, MI) provided textbook blue line play. Mitera began the play with a feed to Inman, Mitera proceeded to move closer to the attacking goal to receive a return pass, Inman obliged with a pass right on Miteras' blade, Inman now moved closer to the net awaiting yet another feed from his partner Mitera who slid a perfect pass to Inman, now positioned at the top of the left face off circle, who fired
a rocket passed the helpless Soo goaltender.

Soo forward Jason Blain got the Indians even as he recorded a power play score at 15:42 of the second period setting the stage for Kolar second goal of the afternoon an unassisted game winner at the 3:40 mark of the third stanza.

SATURDAY – Soo @ US-17
TEAM SCORING PIM PP SHOT W/L Goalie
Soo 0-2-2 8 1-6 28 MacIntyre (21-23)
U-17 1-1-0 14 1-3 23 Blase (24-28)

Scoring:
Soo: Kolar (GWG, G), Blain (PPG), Buha (G), Lutz (A), Bittle (A), Nowinski (A), Flath (A), Beaudry (A), Biondo (A)
USA: Inman (PPG), Lawrence (G), Kaiser (A), Mitera (A), Seidman (A)


Sunday, March 7 – Springfield 2, US-17 3
The US National U-17 Team earned a 3-2 victory as Nick Foligno scored the eventual game-winning goal halfway through the second period. Dan Fardig and Matt Kaiser scored the first two goals for the US and playing his third game in three consecutive days Billy Blase made 24 stops in goal to earn the ‘W'.

The U-17's cashed in on their second power-play opportunity of the first period when Fardig pounced on a rebound in front of the net and flipped the puck over the downed Jr. Blues goalie for a 1-0 lead at 18:28.

Blase started off the second period by denying a breakaway attempt just 30 seconds into the middle session. After a few near misses for USA, Kaiser was able to push the lead to 2-0 at 9:47. Mark Mitera stole the puck in his own zone and sent a saucer pass to Kaiser streaking down the down the right side. All alone, Kaiser deked the goalie hard left and tucked it in the net on the short side. Foligno made it 3-0 less than two minutes later at 11:21. He broke out of the corner and found a seam to the crease where he eluded the goalie's poke check and stuffed a shot into the back of the goal.

The Blues scored on the man-advantage early in the third period at 2:31 to trim the lead to 3-1. At 14:32, Chad Solberg made the score 3-2 when he was unguarded in the slot and one-timed a pass sent from behind the net. Blase held strong in the final minutes to preserve the win despite Springfield pulling its goalie for an extra skater.

Saturday – SPRINGFIELD @ US-17
TEAM SCORING PIM PP SHOT W/L Goalie
Springfield 0-0-2 11 1-3 26 Harper (38-41)
U-17 1-2-0 11 1-3 41 Blase (24-26)

Scoring:
Soo: Hernandez (PPG), Solberg (G), Klusendorf (A), Semenov (A), Podsiad (A), Gumear (A).
USA: Foligno (G, GWG), Fardig (PPG), Kaiser (G), Stoa (A), Mitera (A).

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North American Hockey League Stories from March 8, 2004


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