AROSA, Switzerland — William Girard IV (Boca Raton, Fla.) stopped all 18 shots he faced and 12 players contributed points as the U.S. Under-17 Select Team blanked Switzerland, 12-0, here today at the 2015 Under-17 Five Nations Tournament.
The U.S. can finish the tournament in first place by earning one point in tomorrow’s (Aug. 16) matchup against Germany at 5:30 a.m. ET.
“We played a full 60-minute game,” said Pat Boller (Queens, N.Y.), head coach of the U.S. Under-17 Select Team. “All facets of our game were firing on all cylinders. We controlled the five-on-five play, and our special teams were operating at 100 percent. We need to carry it over to tomorrow’s game.”
Team USA opened the scoring at 8:03 of the first period when Brannon McManus (Newport Beach, Calif.) converted on a feed from Sasha Chmelevski (Northville, Mich.).
McManus added an assist 2:28 later by sending a pass from behind the net to Jacob McGrew (Orange, Calif.), who tapped the puck past Switzerland goaltender Joel Messerli to make it 2-0.
The U.S. added seven more tallies in the second period, including two goals from each Chmelevski and Ivan Lodnia (Novi, Mich.).
Just 1:07 into the frame, Chmelevski scored from his knees before assisting on a goal by Sam Walker (Minneapolis, Minn.) off a two-on-one break four minutes later to give the U.S. a 4-0 lead. Lodnia added a pair of markers, including a power-play goal, at 9:36 and 13:56 to bookend McManus’ second goal of the game.
Team USA’s extended its lead to 8-0 when Wyatt Bongiovanni (Birmingham, Mich.) converted with 3:54 remaining in the second period. Just 1:11 later, Lodnia sent the puck to Chmelevski, who poked it in for a 9-0 lead.
Bongiovanni scored during a U.S. five-on-three advantage at 9:18 of the third stanza before Jack Rathbone (West Roxbury, Mass.) made it 11-0 with a power-play tally :32 later.
McGrew netted his second goal of the game at 10:59 to account for the 12-0 final.
Notes: The U.S. outshot Switzerland 61-18 … With the win, the U.S. improved its record to 2-1-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) at the 2015 Under-17 Five Nations Tournament … Full statistics from today’s game can be found here … For more information on the U.S. Under-17 Select Team, including schedule and full results, click here … Along with the U.S., the 2015 Under-17 Five Nations Tournament includes teams from Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland.
