Do You Even Lift?

The U.S. Under-18 Men’s National Team finished its third day in Russia with its first team strength training session of the trip in the team hotel.

A highly regimented strength and conditioning program is a staple of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program, where all the players competed during the 2017-18 season.

While the players are used to strength and conditioning sessions at the newly built training center at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan, NTDP strength and conditioning coach Darryl Nelson adapted a training program to utilize the equipment available at the team hotel.

The team was split into three groups which cycled through the 30-minute session.


The 2017 U.S. Under-18 Men's National Team gold-medal celebration

Looking Back: 2017 IIHF Under-18 Men's World Championship

The 2017 Under-18 Men's World Championship took place from April 13-23, 2017 in Poprad and Spisska Nova Ves Slovakia. Team USA went undefeated 6-1-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) en route to its tenth gold medal.

Following a pair of exhibition wins against Belarus (5-2), Finland (5-2) the U.S. opened the tournament with a 7-0 victory against Belarus on April 13. That was followed by other preliminary wins against Russia (5-4), Czech Republic (5-2) and Sweden (5-1).

In the quarterfinal matchup with Switzerland, Josh Norris (Oxford, Mich./University of Michigan) scored the game-winning goal with 3:17 left in regulation for Team USA in the 4-2 quarterfinal victory. U.S. goaltender Dylan St. Cyr (Northville, Mich./University of Notre Dame) earned his fifth victory of the tournament by making 15 saves on 17 shots.

In a semifinal rematch with Sweden it was forward Sean Dhooghe (Aurora, Ill./University of Wisconsin) who scored the game-winning goal with :21 remaining in overtime to give Team USA a 4-3 victory.

Current Team USA forward Joel Farabee (Cicero, N.Y./USAH NTDP) scored twice and St. Cyr stopped 22 of 24 shots faced to help the U.S. defeat Finland, 4-2, in the gold-medal game to secure Team USA's 14th consecutive medal.

Dhooghe, Max Gildon (Plano, Texas/University of New Hampshire), and St. Cyr were named to the Media  All-Star Team