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U.S. National Under-18 Team Claims Silver Medal at IIHF World Under-18 Championship; Wilson's Two Goals Not Enough to Top Russia

By Men's World Championshps, 04/22/07, 2:15PM EDT

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TAMPERE, Finland -- The U.S. National Under-18 Team's bid for three consecutive gold medals at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under-18 Championship fell short at the Tampere Hakametsa tonight when it when it dropped a 6-5 decision to Russia in the gold medal game at the 2007 IIHF World Under-18 Championship.

"I am extremely proud of the way our guys competed in this tournament," said Ron Rolston, head coach of the U.S. National Under-18 Team. "We battled hard throughout the event and gave ourselves a chance to win a gold medal, but we ran in to a very good Russian team in the gold-medal game. There are many very good teams in this tournament and I am pleased with the way that our guys represented our country."

Team USA opened the scoring 1:31 into the contest when C.J. Severyn (Beaver, Pa.) beat Russian netminder Alexander Pechurskiy with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle. Vinny Saponari (Powder Springs, Ga.) then gave the United States a 2-0 lead at the 6:13 mark with a shorthanded goal. Matt Rust (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) found Saponari in the neutral zone, who skated in all alone and beat Pechurskiy with a wrist shot over his catching glove.

Russia replied with two goals in the next 5:20 to even the game. Andrey Lokitonov batted in a loose puck during a scramble in front of netminder Josh Unice (Toledo, Ohio) at 7:44, followed by a Sergey Korostin snap shot from the right circle that deflected off the left goalpost and into the net at 11:33 to knot the game at 2-2. Following its first goal, Russia elected to replace Pechurskiy with netminder Vadim Zhelobnyuk.

Team USA regained the lead at the 18:27 mark of the opening period when Jordan Schroeder (Lakeville, Minn.) found linemate Colin Wilson (Greenwich, Conn.), who proceeded to beat Zhelobnyuk and give the United States a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first period.

Russia evened the game 3:59 into the second frame when Dmitry Kugryshev beat Unice from deep in the United States end to make it a 3-3 contest. Eight minutes into the period, Team USA thought it had scored on a scramble in front of the Russian net, but play continued. Seconds later, Russia gained its first lead of the game when Korostin made a pass from behind Team USA's net to Nikita Klyukin, who buried the feed to give Russia a 4-3 advantage.

James vanRiemsdyk (Middletown, N.J.) closed out the second-period scoring and made it a 4-4 game at the 10:37 mark when he batted a puck out of the air from the left side of the net.

Alexi Cherepanov scored Russia's fifth goal at the 11:52 mark of the third period. Russia cycled the puck deep in the United States zone before Chereponov skated out from behind the net and put the puck underneath the crossbar to give Russia a 5-4 lead. Egor Averin made it a 6-4 contest at 17:45 when he put a shot between Unice's pads.

Team USA pulled Unice with 1:11 remaining and applied heavy pressure before Wilson notched his second goal of the contest with six seconds remaining to make it a one-goal game. However, Russia held on during the closing seconds to earn the victory.

The U.S. National Under-18 Team swept the Directorate Awards, as vanRiemsdyk was named the Best Forward of the tournament, Shattenkirk earned Best Defenseman honors and Unice took home Best Goaltender laurels. The trio was also named to the six-player All-Tournament Team.

NOTES: Ian Cole (Ann Arbor, Mich.), Shattenkirk and Unice were named Team USA's three best players of the tournament … Wilson and vanRiemsdyk tied for the tournament lead in points with 12 (5-7) apiece … The United States has played in four consecutive gold-medal games at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship and has captured two gold medals (2005, 2006) and two silver medals (2004, 2007) in that span … The United States and Russia have claimed the last four IIHF World Under-18 Championships.

SCORING SUMMARY

Scoring By Period
RUS 2-2-2 -- 6
USA 3-1-1 -- 5

First Period – Scoring: 1, USA, Severyn (Vargas), 1: 31; 2, USA, Saponari (Rust), 6:13 (sh); 3, RUS, Loktionov (Kugryshev, Voinov), 7:44; 4, RUS, Korostin (Kagaritskiy), 11:33; 5, USA, Wilson (vanRiemsdyk, Schroeder), 18:47. Penalties - USA, O'Brien (hooking), 5: 43; USA, Vaive (tripping), 8:43.

Second Period – Scoring: 6, RUS, Kugryshev (Filatov), 3:59; 7, RUS, Klyukin (Andronov, Korostin), 8:00; 8, USA, vanRiemsdyk (Wilson, Schroeder), 10:37. Penalties - RUS, Seleznev (tripping), 0:37; RUS, Filatov (hooking), 11:21.

Third Period – Scoring: 9, RUS, Chereponov (Karamnov, Petrov), 11:52; 10, RUS, Averin (Kulikov), 17:45; 11, USA, Wilson (Farichild, vanRiemsdyk), 19:54. Penalties - RUS, Tokranov (kneeing), 2:47.

Overtime – Scoring: No Scoring. Penalties – No Penalties.

Shootout - USA, vanRiemsdyk. 

Shots By Period           1      2      3      TOTAL
RUS                       7      9      8       24
USA                       7      13     16      36

Goaltending (SH-SV)       1      2      3      TOTAL
RUS, Pechurskiy (7:44)   3-1    x-x    x-x      3-1
RUS, Zhelobnyuk (42:16)  4-3   13-12  16-15    33-30
USA, Unice (58:49)       7-5    9-7    8-6     24-18

Power Play: RUS 0-2; USA 0-3

Penalties: RUS 3-6; USA 2-4

Attendance: 2,279

Officials: Kyle Rehman(CAN); Linesmen- Fredirik Carlman (SWE), Antti Orelma (FIN)

2007 U.S. National Under-18 Team Schedule 
April 12-22 • Tampere & Rauma, Finland

Date        Opponent         Location       Time(EDT)/Result
April 7     Switzerland*     Sakyla           L, 4-3
April 8     Finland*           Rauma           T, 4-4
April 12    Russia            Rauma           L, 5-3
April 13    Germany         Rauma           W, 9-1
April 15    Canada           Rauma           L, 3-2 (SO)
April 17    Latvia              Rauma           W, 8-0
April 20    Canada           Tampere         W, 4-3 (SO)
April 22    Russia            Tampere         L, 5-4

*Exhibition Game