BRECLAV, Czech Republic – Ryan Poehling (Lakeville, Minn.) scored with 24 seconds left in overtime to give the U.S. Under-18 Select Team a 4-3 victory over Finland in the opening game of the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in Breclav, Czech Republic.
“Our team is resilient,” said Clark Donatelli (Providence, R.I.), head coach of the 2016 U.S. Under-18 Select Team. “We played really well in executing our system and our leadership group did a great job.”
Vanya Lodnia (Novi, Mich.) opened the scoring for Team USA at 15:31 of the first period. Sasha Chmelevski (Northville, Mich.) gathered a loose puck and flipped a backhand pass to Lodnia, who beat Finland goaltender Lasse Lehtinen for the score.
Finland’s Eero Teravainen tallied on the power play 3:21 later to even the score 1-1 entering the first intermission.
Chmelevski scored a power-play goal at 10:31 of the second period to give Team USA a 2-1 advantage. Lodnia collected a pass from Brannon McManus (Newport Beach, Calif.) and found a streaking Chmelevski in front of the net, who tapped the puck past Lehtinen for the goal.
Sami Moilanen tied the game 2-2 with Finland’s second power-play goal 2:54 into the final period.
Michael Pastujov (Bradenton, Fla.) gave the U.S. a 3-2 lead with 8:51 to play before Teravainen scored his second power-play goal to make it 3-3 with 2:18 remaining in regulation. The teams then skated into overtime and traded chances until Poehling took a pass from Tommy Miller (West Bloomfield, Mich) and fired a wrist shot past Lehtinen for the game-winner with only 24 seconds remaining in the extra session.
Goaltender Keith Petruzzelli (Wilbraham, Mass.) made 22 saves in the U.S. victory.
Team USA continues tournament play tomorrow (Aug. 9) against Switzerland at 9:30 a.m. ET. Fans can watch a live stream of the game here.
NOTES: The U.S. is competing in Group A along with the Czech Republic, Finland and Switzerland … For complete tournament coverage, including Team USA’s roster and statistics, click here … The win marks the first 1-0 start for the U.S. at the annual Hlinka tournament since 2010… For full game statistics, click here … Join the conversation on Twitter and Facebook using #HlinkaMemorial
