QUISPAMSIS, N.B. – Brody Roybal (Northlake, Ill.) and Declan Farmer (Tampa, Fla.) each notched a goal and an assist, and Jen Lee (San Francisco, Calif.) earned his third shutout of the tournament in as many starts as the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team earned a 3-0 victory over Canada here today in the 2023 Para Hockey Cup championship game at the Qplex. This marks the eighth consecutive, and 10th overall, Para Hockey Cup championship for Team USA.
The U.S. finished the Para Hockey Cup with an undefeated 5-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record and has now won the last eight tournament titles and 10 overall.
“We started strong, and after that we had to settle in and battle,” said David Hoff (Bottineau, N.D.). “It was a physical game and I’m proud of how we played.”
Farmer opened the scoring 2:16 into the contest with an wrist shot from the slot after a nifty feed by Roybal, who stopped the puck with the knob of his stick and then fed it to Farmer.
At the 4:20 mark, Roybal made it a 2-0 game, batting home a cross-ice feed from Jack Wallace (Franklin Lakes, N.J) off the rush.
Team USA led 7-4 in shots on goal in a scoreless middle frame, generating several quality scoring chances throughout the period.
A physical third period was scoreless until Wallace put one into an empty net with 37 seconds remaining to seal the U.S. victory.
NOTES: Team USA was 0-1 on the power play, while Canada was 0-2 … The U.S. and Canada each had 13 shots on goal … Brody Roybal was named U.S. Player of the Game.