January 21: Day Three

Today was Team USA's final pre-tournament skate here in Turin, Italy. Tomorrow, the U.S. will face off against host Italy at 10 a.m. local time/4 a.m. ET as the 2018 Turin Para Ice Hockey International Tournament officially gets underway.

USA HOCKEY MOURNS PASSING OF JIM JOHANNSON
Jim Johannson
, assistant executive director of USA Hockey and the general manager of the 2018 U.S. Olympic men’s ice hockey team, passed away this morning in his sleep at his home in Colorado Springs. Johannson, born March 10, 1964, in Rochester, Minnesota, had a life-long career in hockey and was one of the most accomplished and respected people in the sport. A childhood teammate and eventual two-time Olympic teammate with current U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey head coach Guy Gosselin (Grafton, Wis.), Johannson's time with USA Hockey included 34 gold, 19 silver and 11 bronze medals; the launching and implementation of the highly acclaimed American Development Model; and securing USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, as a home for all U.S. teams to utilize.

TURIN, BUFFALO ONLY REMAINING TUNE-UPS FOR TEAM USA
For Team USA, this tournament, as well as a pair of games against Canada in February, are the lone remaining international games before the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
     "It's important we remember that we really have only six or seven games together until the Paralympics in March," said Guy Gosselin, head coach of the 2017-18 U.S. National Sled Hockey Team and 2018 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. "These games matter and the effort and attention to detail we give these games will need to translate into the Paralympics if we want to achieve our goal of winning a gold medal."

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS CONTINUES FOR TEAM USA
With a win at the 2017 World Sled Hockey Challenge in Charlottetown, P.E.I., last December, the U.S. has now claimed seven of the last eight major international sled hockey tournaments. Prior to its silver medal at the 2017 Para Sled Hockey World Championship in Gangneung, South Korea, the U.S. had claimed titles six straight times, including the 2016 (Dec.) World Sled Hockey Challenge in Charlottetown, P.E.I.; 2016 IPC Pan-Pacific Championship in Buffalo, New York; the 2016 (Jan.) World Sled Hockey Challenge in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia; the 2015 IPC Sled Hockey World Championship in Buffalo, New York; the 2015 World Sled Hockey Challenge in Leduc, Alberta; and the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Since 2011, the U.S. has reached the championship game of every major international event.


Team USA takes a team photo with its Italian hosts, Andro and Nikola