| U.S. National Junior Team Loses to Sweden, 4-2, In Pre-Tournament Game |
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| Hartman and O’Regan Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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ANGELHOLM, Sweden – The U.S. National Junior Team lost to Sweden, 4-2, tonight in pre-tournament action at Lindab Arena. Ryan Hartman (West Dundee, Ill.) and Dan O’Regan (Needham, Mass./Boston University) supplied the U.S. goals.
Team USA is holding training camp for the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Angelholm until Dec. 23. The U.S. has a final pre-tournament game Sunday (Dec. 22) vs. Finland. Tournament play in Malmo, Sweden, begins Dec. 26. “There was a lot to like in how we played tonight,” said Don Lucia, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. “I thought we had vast improvement in our game since we last played. I thought we played with very good energy, especially after the first period. We got pucks in deep and a lot of good looks. Unfortunately, it was one of those nights where their goalie made some outstanding saves. Five-on-five, we scored a couple good deflection goals. The minus was that we gave up two power-play goals.”
During a power play at 6:54 of the first period, Sweden’s Andreas Johnson one-timed a shot from the left slot high into the net for a 1-0 advantage.
Sweden doubled its lead with 21 seconds left in the opening frame when Alexander Wennberg swatted a high rebound into the goal from the edge of the crease. Neither team scored in the second period, though USA doubled Sweden in shots on goal, 12-6, for a two-period shot advantage of 23-12. Hartman cut the U.S. deficit in half at 1:43 of the third period. Ian McCoshen (Hudson, Wis./Boston College) stopped a Sweden clearing attempt and wristed a shot that Hartman tipped out of midair in the low slot. Sebastian Collberg reclaimed Sweden’s two-goal lead by speeding through the right circle and firing a hard wrist shot into the near top corner. While on the power play, Sweden buried a rebound at 17:25 to gain a 4-1 advantage. Team USA capped the scoring at 19:04 when O’Regan redirected a left point shot by Jaccob Slavin(Erie, Colo./Colorado College). Riley Barber (Pittsburgh, Pa./Miami Univ.) also assisted. Anthony Stolarz (Edison, N.J.) made 19 saves in the loss. His counterpart, Oscar Dansk, stopped 36 shots. Team USA is back on the ice Sunday (Dec. 22) when it takes on Finland in the pre-tournament finale in Angelholm, Sweden. Game time is 1:30 p.m. (7:30 a.m. ET).
NOTES: Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass.) was named Team USA’s Player of the Game … For photos, box score and audio from Coach Lucia, click here … The line chart and game notes for today’s game are available here … The U.S. has medaled in three of the last four IIHF World Junior Championships, including gold in 2013 and 2010 and bronze in 2011 … Don Lucia (Plymouth, Minn.), head coach of the University of Minnesota men’s ice hockey team, is the head coach of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team. Bob Motzko (St. Cloud, Minn.), head coach of the St. Cloud State University men’s ice hockey team, Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), associate head coach of the Boston College men’s ice hockey team, and David Lassonde (Denver, Colo.), assistant coach of the University of Denver men’s ice hockey team, are the assistant coaches. Dan Muse (Clinton, Conn.), assistant coach of Yale University’s men’s ice hockey team, is serving as the team’s video coordinator… Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the fifth consecutive year … Don Waddell (Detroit, Mich.), an international consultant to USA Hockey, is assisting with player identification for Team USA … The U.S. will compete in a group with Canada, Czech Republic, Germany and Slovakia at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship. For more information about the tournament, click here … In August, 44 players attended the 2013 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. Complete details from that camp can be found here.
2014 IIHF World Junior Championship NHL Network Schedule
Dec. 26, 2013-Jan. 5, 2014 • Malmo, Sweden • Malmo Arena
* pre-tournament game in Angelholm, Sweden, not televised in U.S.
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