PIESTANY, Slovakia – Austin Czarnik (Washington, Mich.) scored 38 seconds into the game and the U.S. National Under-17 Team never looked back as it rolled past host Slovakia, 7-1, to take first place at the 2009 Vlad Dzurilla Under-18 Tournament.
"It was a great team effort and a very good performance by the players in a first-place game," said John Hynes, head coach of the U.S. National Under-17 Team. "I think that this week, the team went through some adversity for the first time and were still able to finish in first place. Moving forward, we'll take the positives and everything we learned from this tournament and continue to improve."
Czarnik staked the U.S. to a 1-0 lead after he took a feed from Emerson Etem (Long Beach, Calif.), walked into the high slot and wired a shot over the blocker of netminder Juraj Holly. Just 1:10 later, Jason Zucker (Las Vegas, Nev.) fired a wrist shot just under the cross bar to double Team USA's advantage. Etem tallied at 6:40 to make it 3-0. Jack Campbell (Port Huron, Mich.) turned aside all eight shots he saw in the opening 20 minutes.
At 13:55 of the second stanza, Justin Faulk (South St. Paul, Minn.) one-timed a feed from Matthew Nieto (Long Beach, Calif.) over the blocker of Holly for a 5-on-3 power-play goal. Team USA added another power-play marker when Stu Higgins (Troy, Mich.) skated in from the half wall, drew in a defender and feathered a pass to Bryan Rust (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) who slid the puck between Holly's legs at 16:47. Holly was then replaced in goal by Filip Pavcik. Nieto made it 6-0 with just 29 seconds to play in the period. Luke Moffatt (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) and Kevin Clare (New Rochelle, N.Y.) each recorded assists on the play.
In the final frame, Slovakia's Marek Hrivik notched a power-play goal to make it 6-1 at 4:29. Higgins recorded a power-play marker of his own at 15:55 to account for the 7-1 final.
Campbell made 28 saves on the afternoon. He was named best goaltender at the tournament with a 2-0-0-0 record, 1.00 goals-against average and .952 save percentage.
NOTES: The U.S. National Under-17 Team finished international competition with a 10-0-2-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record this season ... Four players notched two points in the game including Emerson Etem (1-1--2), Stu Higgins (1-1--2), Matthew Nieto (1-1--2) and Bryan Rust (1-1--2) ... Etem (3-1--4), Austin Czarnik (2-2--4) and Higgins (1-3--4) led the U.S. with four points each in the tournament ... Nieto paced the U.S. with 18 points (9-9) in international competition ... Campbell posted a 7-0-1-0 record, 1.17 GAA, .949 save percentage and three shutouts against international opponents ... The U.S. National Under-17 Team won the Vlad Dzurilla Tournament in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
GAME SUMMARY
Scoring By Period
| SVK | 0 | 0 | 1 -- | 1 |
| USA | 3 | 3 | 1 -- | 7 |
First Period - Scoring: 1, USA, Czarnik (Etem), :38; 2, USA, Zucker (Tinordi, Simonelli), 1:48; 3, USA, Etem (Balisy, Higgins), 6:40. Penalties: USA, Simonelli (kneeing), 3:17.
Second Period - Scoring: 4, USA, Faulk (Nieto), 13:55 (pp); 5, USA, Rust (Higgins), 16:47 5x3 (pp); 6, USA, Nieto (Moffatt, Clare), 19:41. Penalties: USA, Fallon (charging), 5:34; SVK, Vandas (holding), 12:57; SVK, Stano (misconduct), 13:44; SVK, Stano (boarding), 13:44; SVK, Hrasko (charging), 15:34; USA, Shore (boarding), 19:51.
Third Period - Scoring: 7, SVK, Hrivik (Imrich, Panik), 4:29 (pp); 8, USA, Higgins (Rust, Johns), 15:55 (pp). Penalties: USA, Nieto (delay of game), 1:18; USA, Moffatt (kneeing), 3:36; USA, Tinordi (hooking), 9:56; SVK, Petro (charging), 13:59.
Power Play: SVK 1-6; USA 3-4
Penalties: SVK 5-18; USA 6-12
Officials: Referees - Roman Rudy, Juraj Konc; Linesmen - Milan Masik, Peter Stano
Attendance: 672
Shots by Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SVK | 8 | 9 | 12 | 29 |
| USA | 13 | 15 | 5 | 33 |
| Goaltenders (SH/SV) | 1 | 2 | 3 | Total |
| SVK, Holly, 36:47 | 13-10 | 12-10 | x-x | 25-20 |
| SVK, Pavcik, 23:13 | x-x | 3-2 | 5-4 | 8-6 |
| USA, Campbell, 60:00 | 8-8 | 9-9 | 12-11 | 29-28 |
(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)
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