skip navigation
Photo by Rena Laverty
Jack Hughes (Orlando, Fla.) led the U.S. National Under-18 team to victory against the Youngstown Phantoms with five assists on Monday afternoon at the Covelli Centre. Oliver Wahlstrom (Quincy, Mass.) and Joel Farabee (Cicero, N.Y.) posted three-point nights with two goals and an assist for both.
With the win, the U18s are 17-12-0-3 (W-L-OTL-SOL) overall and 9-2-0-0 in USHL regular season play this year.
Wahlstrom struck at 1:03 in the first period with a wrist shot to finish off a tic-tac-toe passing play to get Team USA on the board, 1-0. Hughes assisted on the goal.
Ty Emberson (Eau Claire, Wis.) added to the U18s lead at 8:24 in the first. Hughes and Farabee assisted on the goal.
Youngstown got one back at the beginning of the second to make it 2-1.
Wahlstrom scored at 8:09 in the second. He managed to keep the puck in the zone with a behind the back pass to Hughes who fed the puck back to Wahlstrom as he drove the net and scored to make it 3-1.
At 14:14 in the second, Wahlstrom took a slap shot from the point and Farabee tipped the rebound past the goaltender. Hughes also assisted on the goal.
Farabee scored his second of the game at 19:42 of the second to make it 5-1. He was assisted by Jake Wise (Reading, Mass.) and Hughes.
Jake Pivonka (Naperville, Ill.) scored eleven seconds later after Gavin Hain (Grand Rapids, Minn.) outworked three Youngstown players to put a shot on net that Pivonka tipped in to make it 6-1.
Jack DeBoer (Madison, N.J.) wrapped up the scoring for Team USA by putting it in the net at 16:34 in the third.
Drew DeRidder (Fenton, Mich.) made 24 saves on the night to keep his USHL record a perfect 7-0-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL).
This afternoon, Team USA scored on two of their five power-play chances. They were perfect on the penalty kill.
The U18s next play on Friday, Jan. 18 in Cedar Rapids.