NTDP Win a Thriller

The National Team Development Program defeated the Indiana ICE 5-4 Saturday in overtime. Here's USA Hockey's recap:

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Chris McCarthy (Collegeville, Pa.) deflected a Sam Calabrese (Park Ridge, Ill.) shot from mid-air in overtime to give the U.S. National Under-18 Team a 5-4 victory over the Indiana Ice. Team USA notched three unanswered goals in the third period to force the extra frame.

"This was a good character victory for our guys, coming back from a 4-1 deficit," said Ron Rolston, head coach of the U.S. National Under-18 Team. "There were a lot of positives and some things we could work on to get better as a team. We're heading into the [North American Hockey League] Showcase with game experience under our belt and we know we need to make improvements in order to have success there."

Indiana tallied early after Brandon Richardson tipped a shot past netminder Brandon Maxwell (Winter Park, Fla.) at 4:09 in the first period. Team USA answered back just 40 seconds later when Jeremy Morin (Auburn, N.Y.) tapped home a rebound. Stanislav Galiev put the Ice ahead, 2-1, with the man advantage when he one-timed a pass into the top of the net. With just 34 seconds to play in the opening stanza, Will MacDonald gave Indiana a 3-1 lead with just 34 seconds.

In the second frame, Ryan Pajimola followed a rebound and beat Maxwell with a backhand shot into the top-right corner. Adam Murray (Anchorage, Alaska) took over for Maxwell between the pipes for Team USA at 9:10 in the middle period and stopped all six shots he saw.

John Henrion(Holden, Mass.) brought Team USA within two goals at 4:37 of the third period. Henrion skated out from the near-side boards and fired a wrist shot over the outstretched glove of Ice goaltender Brett Bennett. Kevin Lynch (Grosse Pointe, Mich.) made the score 4-3 when he slipped the puck under Bennett after picking up a rebound. Indiana's Alex Handy was awarded a penalty shot at the 9:07 mark. Murray turned away the penalty shot attempt to keep Team USA within one. With 5:39 left in regulation, Henrion notched his second goal to tie the game, 4-4. Team USA allowed just three shots on goal in the period.

McCarthy notched the game-winner at 3:36 of overtime to account for the 5-4 final.

Maxwell made 10 saves, while Murray turned away all 11 shots he saw to help Team USA earn the win.

Both the U.S. National Under-18 and Under-17 Teams will be in action at the sixth annual North American Hockey League Showcase at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn., September 17-20.

NOTES: Team USA out shot Indiana by a 50-25 margin ... Five U.S. players had two points tonight including John Henrion (2-0--2), Chris McCarthy (1-1--2), Chris Brown (Flower Mound, Texas/0-2--2), Sam Calabrese (0-2--2) and Drew Shore (Denver, Colo./0-2--2).

Now if you've been reading the blog regularly, you know USA Hockey can get on my nerves easily. When I went to read the box score this afternoon, I found out they redid the NTDP website somewhat. At first I thought just added a new url buut at second glance their schedules and statistics are now on pointstreak.com. I know their NAHL stats are posted on the NAHL site but hopefully this site keep tracks of stats against college and international competition. This is good news because information will be updated more quickly. Even though it took two days for them to post the result of the game but they weren't the only ones that didn't have a recap of the game this weekend.

The Chicago Steel defeated the Chicago Blackhawks' alumni 11-4 on Saturday.

That's My Take

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)