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U.S. Rolls Past Finland at Jr. Evaluation Camp

By USAHockey.com, 08/07/14, 6:15PM EDT

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LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- Team USA dominated play from start to finish in a 9-1 victory over Finland at the 2014 U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp. The line of Tyler Motte (St. Clair, Mich./University of Michigan), Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./U.S. National Under-18 Team) and Alex Tuch (Baldwinsville, N.Y./U.S. National Under-18 Team) combined for five goals and seven assists. Motte tallied a hat trick plus one assist, Eichel had a goal and four assists and Tuch notched a goal and two helpers.

Tuch ignited the scoring at 5:04 when he tapped in an Eichel pass. Sonny Milano (Massapequa, N.Y./U.S. National Under-18 Team) passed the puck from behind the net to the right circle, where Eichel quickly spun to his backhand and fed a no-look pass to Tuch at the left post.
 
At 17:22, Motte was the beneficiary of Eichel’s second assist, upping the U.S. lead to 2-0. Eichel carried the puck behind the net right to left and flipped a short pass to Motte, who snuck a shot inside the left post.
 
The U.S. seized control of the game early in the second period with goals at 1:15 and 1:40. Motte scored on a line rush with assists to Tuch and Eichel. Then, Kyle Connor (Shelby Township, Mich./Youngstown Phantoms) ripped a power-play goal from the right hash mark.
 
Eichel scored a highlight-reel goal at 10:03 to make it 5-0. Skating down the right side on a two-on-one, Eichel deked around the defender and wristed a shot glove side.
 
Finland got on the scoreboard at 11:17, making it 5-1 after 40 minutes of play.

Twenty seconds into third period, Milano took a pass from Jack Dougherty (Cottage Grove, Minn./U.S. National Under-18 Team), cut across the slot and dropped the puck back to Dylan Larkin (Waterford, Mich./U.S. National Under-18 Team), who scored into a near empty net.

Two minutes later, again on the power play, John Hayden (Greenwich, Conn./Yale University) scored after eluding a defenseman high in the zone, skating to the right side of the slot and rifling it past the goaltender top shelf, making it 7-1.

Just before the halfway point of the third period, Eichel won a faceoff, tapped the puck forward, stepped around the opposing center and slid the puck across for Motte to toss in, completing his hat trick.

The scoring wrapped up when Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Ariz./U.S. National Under-17 Team) dug the puck out of the left offensive corner, slid it across the front of the goal to the right circle for Dougherty, who ripped it off the crossbar and in.

Notes: Eichel leads Team USA in scoring with nine points (1-8) in five games ... Milano (2-6) and Tuch (6-2) are second and third with eight points apiece … Motte is fourth, tallying seven points (4-3), while Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, Wis./University of Denver) rounds out the top five with six points (1-5) … Team USA has an off day Friday (Aug. 8) before finishing the camp with a game against the Czech Republic on Saturday (Aug. 9) at 1 p.m.

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