RAUMA, Finland – The U.S. National Under-18 Team tallied three goals in the final 9:09 of the game to tie Finland, 4-4, this afternoon at Rauma Arena in a pre-tournament contest in preparation for the 2007 International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-18 Championship.

The Finns opened the scoring with a marker 12:04 into the opening period to gain a 1-0 advantage. Team USA replied with the lone goal of the second period when Jordan Schroeder (Lakeville, Minn.) beat Finland’s netminder Henri Sateri off a feed from linemate James vanRiemsdyk (Middletown, N.J.) to even the game at 1-1.

Finland tallied three goals in the opening 2:31 of the final period to jump out to a 4-1 lead. The first marker came 36 seconds into the period, followed by another goal 29 seconds later. The Finns took a 4-1 lead with a power-play goal with 17:29 remaining in the contest.

U.S. forward Vinny Saponari (Powder Springs, Ga.) started the Team USA comeback with a power-play goal off a pass from James O’Brien (Maplewood, Minn.). Ryan Hayes(Syracuse, N.Y.) made it a 4-3 contest when he scored with 5:08 remaining in the game when he buried a feed from vanRiemsdyk. Team USA completed the comeback whenColin Wilson (Greenwich, Conn.) notched a power-play marker with 1:13 remaining in the contest to knot the game at 4-4.

Team USA was 2-for-4 on the power-play, while Finland went 1-for-7 with the man advantage. U.S. netminder Josh Unice (Toldeo, Ohio) made 29 stops in goal for the U.S. today.

“Our flash of offense at the end of the game is encouraging,” said Ron Rolston, head coach of Team USA. “Our guys didn’t quit and keep working eventhough it was an exhibition contest. We will need to have a full 60-minute effort if we are going to have success in this tournament.”

The U.S. National Under-18 Team will face Russia on Thursday (April 12) at 12:30 p.m. EDT to open the tournament. 

SCORING SUMMARY

Scoring By Period
USA 0-1-3 -- 4
FIN 1-0-3 –- 4

First Period – Scoring: 1, FIN, Tyrvainen (Pallassalo, Kokkonen),12:04. Penalties – USA, Cross (hooking), 5:02; USA, Sturges (hooking),7:30; USA, McDonagh (hooking), 12:44; USA, O’Brien (hooking), 19:45.

Second Period – Scoring: 2, USA, Schroeder (Wilson, vanRiemsdyk), 10:53. Penalties – No Penalties.

Third Period – Scoring: 3, FIN, Martikainen (Roppo), 00:36; 4, FIN, Jarvinen, 1:05; 5, FIN, Roppo (Liljeblad), (pp) 2:31; 6, USA, Saponari (O’Brien), (pp) 10:51; 7, USA, R. Hayes (vanRiemsdyk), 14:52; 8, USA, Wilson (Shattenkirk, vanRiemsdyk), (pp) 18:47.  Penalties – USA, J. Hayes (high-sticking), 1:46; USA, Cross (hooking), 7:39; FIN, Lucenius (interference), 10:23; USA, Rust (roughing), 11:19; FIN, Tyrvainen (roughing), 11:19; FIN, Lucenius (hooking), 18:05; FIN, Kokkala (hooking), 19:48.

Shots By Period  1   2   3   TOTAL
USA              12  12  14  42  
FIN              11  14  12  37

Goaltending (SH-SV) 1   2   3  TOTAL
USA, Unice (59:18)  10  14  9  33
FIN, Sateri(60:00)  12  11  15 38

Power Play: USA 2-4; FIN 1-7

Penalties: USA 7-14; FIN 4-8

Attendance: 3,000