Friday, May 19, 2017
5 p.m. local time

COLOGNE, Germany – With the sting still in the air following a frustrating 2-0 loss yesterday to Finland in the quarterfinals of the 2017 IIHF Men’s World Championship, players and staff of Team USA departed for home and other destinations here today.

Work began last night to book travel for the 25 players part of the 2017 U.S. Men’s National Team and most staff.

The training staff remained in Cologne today and spent the day packing up the lockerroom and shipping items in different directions. They will head home tomorrow.

For Team USA, which will officially finish fifth in the world championship, the tournament was highlighted by six straight wins in the preliminary round after a tournament-opening loss to Germany in which the U.S. dominated play for most of the game. The six wins in a row in the men’s world championship, which has been done only one other time in U.S. history (1990), included victories over both Sweden and Russia and resulted in Team USA winning Group A. With an average age of 22.7, the U.S. had the youngest roster in the tournament.

STATISTICAL LEADERS
Johnny Gaudreau
finished as Team USA’s leading goal scorer and point getter with 6-5—11, while alternate captain Dylan Larkin (2-8—10), Anders Lee (5-2—7), Clayton Keller (5-2—7) and alternate captain Brock Nelson (4-3—7) rounded out the top five. Jimmy Howard played six of the eight games in goal and was 4-2 with a 1.86 goals against average and .920 save percentage. Connor Hellebuyck was unbeaten in his two appearance (2.50, .922)

TOP THREE PLAYERS
Johnny Gaudreau
, Dylan Larkin and Anders Lee were named Team USA’s top three players of the tournament.

PARTING SHOTS
Coach Jeff Blashill praised the organizing committee for a terrific job following the game yesterday … Dylan Larkin averaged 20:27 of ice time in the eight games of the world championship, tops on the squad, while Jacob Trouba (20:10) was not far behind … Anders Lee scored five times in the tournament, tied for second on Team USA. All five goals came on the power play … Over the eight games of the world championship, Jack Eichel fired 34 shots on goal, the most of any player for the U.S. Anders Lee had 28 shots on goal, while Johnny Gaudreau had 25 … Clayton Keller had a hat trick in a 7-2 win over Denmark on May 7, the first hat trick for a U.S. player in the men’s world championship since Craig Smith scored three times in a 4-1 win over Finland on May 8, 2013 … Charlie McAvoy played for four different teams that made the playoff round, helping Team USA to the gold medal at the World Junior Championship, playing for Boston University in the NCAA Tournament, playing for the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and finally competing here for Team USA in the quarterfinals of the IIHF Men’s World Championship … Connor Murphy, the captain of Team USA, and Brock Nelson, an alternate captain, both played in their fourth straight men’s world championship. The two are among a group of just nine players that have played in four or more straight men’s world championships for the U.S.