The U.S. National Under-18 Team continues play at the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Men’s Under-18 World Championship this week. After losing the opener, Team USA won its next two games and finishes out round-robin play against Germany on Tuesday. The team currently sits second in Group A.

Crossover quarterfinal action begins on Thursday. The winner of each quarterfinal moves onto the semifinals on Saturday. The bronze-medal and gold-medal contests are set for Sunday.

TOURNAMENT ROUNDUP: The United States opened the tournament with a 3-1 setback to Russia on Thursday. Troy Terry (Highlands Ranch, Colo.) registered the lone goal while Luke Opilka (St. Louis, Mo.) finished with 13 stops.

The team came back on Friday to beat Slovakia 10-0. Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Jack Roslovic (Columbus, Ohio) each tallied two goals while Casey Fitzgerald (North Reading, Mass.), Matthew Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo.), Luke Kunin (Chesterfield, Mo.), Brendan Warren (Carleton, Mich.), Jeremy Bracco (Freeport, N.Y.) and Terry had single tallies. Evan Sarthou (Black Diamond, Wash.) earned the shutout with 15 stops.

On Sunday, Team USA beat Sweden 6-4. Clayton Keller (Swansea, Ill.) paced the offensive attack with two goals. Charles McAvoy (Long Beach, N.Y.), Colin White (Hanover, Mass.), Chad Krys (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Matthews also registered goals. Opilka earned the starting nod and finished with 14 saves.

• With his five-point effort (2-3) against Slovakia, Auston Matthews broke the National Team Development Program single-season points record. Matthews enters the game against Germany with 108 points (50-58). Patrick Kane (Buffalo, N.Y) held the previous record with 102 points in 2005-06. Additionally, Matthews is just the second player ever to notch 100 or more points in a single season with the NTDP.

• With 56 assists, Jeremy Bracco needs three more helpers to break his single-season record of 58 that he set last year. He's already the NTDP's all-time assists leader with 114, surpassing Patrick Kane and J.D. Forrest (Auburn, N.Y./1997-2000), who are tied with 88 each.

• Eleven members of the U18s are included in the final NHL Central Scouting draft rankings. The list includes skaters Colin White (29), Christian Fischer (Wayne, Ill./37), Jack Roslovic (39), Jordan Greenway (Potsdam, N.Y./47), Jeremy Bracco (60), Brendan Warren (66), Troy Terry (107), Caleb Jones (Frisco, Texas/115), Nicholas Boka (Plymouth, Mich./117) and Casey Fitzgerald (148); and goaltender Luke Opilka (12).

• With forwards Riley Barber (Livonia, Mich./2011-12/Washington Capitals) and Cameron Darcy (South Boston, Mass./2010-12/Tampa Bay Lighting) signing entry-level contracts, 13 players from the 1994 age group have signed NHL contracts, and seven have played at least one game in the NHL.
  The most notable regulars in the NHL from this group are defensemen Seth Jones (Plano, Texas/2010-12/Nashville) and Jacob Trouba (Rochester, Mich./2010-12/Winnipeg).

• Former NTDP forward Bryan Lerg (Livonia, Mich./2002-04) earned a call up to the San Jose Sharks on April 5. He made his NHL debut on April 9 against Edmonton. He scored his first goal in the game, and it proved to be the game winner.

• So far six former NTDP players have been selected to the U.S. Men's National Team that will compete at the 2015 IIHF Men’s World Championship May 1-17 in Ostrava and Prague, Czech Republic. They are forwards Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./2012-14/Boston University), Dylan Larkin (Waterford, Mich./2012-14/University of Michigan), Stefan Matteau (Chicago, Ill./2010-12/Albany Devils) and Jeremy Morin (Auburn, N.Y./2007-09/Columbus), along with defensemen Justin Faulk (South St. Paul, Minn./2008-10/Carolina) and Connor Murphy (Dublin, Ohio/2009-11/Phoenix).

• Auston Matthews leads the U18 Team with 50 goals and 58 assists for 108 points in 56 games. Matthew Tkachuk (37-52) ranks second with 89 points, while Jeremy Bracco (28-56) is third with 84 points. Rounding out the top five are Jack Roslovic (23-49) and Christian Fischer (31-28), with 72 and 59 points, respectively.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.