| Team USA back in action tomorrow vs. Canada at 9:00 a.m. ET |
| OSTRAVA, Czechia – Jack Wallace (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) tallied a hat trick and Declan Farmer (Tampa, Fla.) scored twice to help the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team to a 6-0 victory here in the preliminary round of the IPH Cup at Ostravar Arena. “I thought we had a slow start, but we continued to get better as we got pucks on net.” said David Hoff (Bottineau, N.D.), head coach of the U.S. National Sled Team, “the challenge now is to build on this going into tomorrow.” At the 5:47 mark of the opening period, Wallace collected a pass from Kevin McKee (Davenport, Iowa) in the slot and back-handed the puck past the outstretched glove of Patrik Sedlacek to stake the U.S. to a lead it would never relinquish.In the final minute of the opening frame, Brody Roybal (Northlake, Ill.) connected with Farmer on a long stretch pass, and Farmer weaved through several defenders before rifling home one with 39 seconds remaining in the period. Just 34 seconds into the middle stanza, Malik Jones (Aurora, Colo.) found Chris Douglas (Saint Cloud, Fla.) at the point, and he wristed a shot into the top right corner to give Team USA a 3-0 lead. At 3:57, Wallace picked up a shorthanded goal for his second goal of the game, batting in a pass from David Eustace (Stoneham, Mass.) on the doorstep. Farmer added to tally at the 7:23 mark with an assist from Noah Grove (Frederick, Md.) to put Team USA up 5-0.Wallace completed a hat trick while on the powerplay with 1:01 remaining in the contest to cap off the 6-0 win.The U.S. is back in action tomorrow (Oct. 3) against Canada for its second preliminary round game. Opening faceoff is set for 9:00 a.m. ET, and can be viewed live here. NOTES: Noah Grove (Frederick, Md.) was named U.S. Player of the Game… Team USA outshot Team IPH 29-4… Team USA was 1-2 on the powerplay, while Team IPH was 0-1 |
