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U.S. National Inline Team Downs Slovakia, 6-0

By USAHockey.com, 07/06/15, 9:45AM MDT

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TAMPERE, Finland — Travis Noe (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) scored three times and James Mello (Rehoboth, Mass.) stopped all 12 shots he faced to help the U.S. National Inline Team to a 6-0 win here today in its second preliminary round game of the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation Inline Hockey World Championship.

“We had a better team effort tonight,” said Joe Cook, head coach of the 2015 U.S. National Inline Team. “Our team is really coming together. The main goal is to get better every game. I’m very pleased with how our goaltending is evolving, and our penalty kill continues to get stronger every game.”

The U.S. got off to a quick start when Nielsson Arcibal (Vista, Calif.) converted 18 seconds into the game. Noe doubled the lead for Team USA minutes later when his wrist shot beat Slovakian goaltender Viktor Valuch to the glove side.

Cody Kettler (St. Louis, Mo.), off a feed from Noe, fired a shot from the low slot to make it 3-0 at 5:56 of the second quarter and :13 later, Noe redirected the puck between Valuch’s pads for his second of the game. With :57 remaining in the half, Noe completed his hat trick, firing a shot into the upper corner of the net to put the U.S. up 5-0.

At 10:03 of the third quarter, Tyler Spezia (Clinton Township, Mich.) fed Shane Fox (Sicklerville, N.J.), who converted from the right faceoff circle to account for the 6-0 final.

Team USA will face Canada tomorrow (July 7) at 1 p.m. ET. Live streaming of all games from the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship games can be found here.

NOTES: Team USA is 2-0 in the 2015 IIHF Inline World ChampionshipA game at the IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship includes four, 12-minute quarters ...The U.S. has medaled in all but four of the 18 IIHF Inline World Championships previously staged, including six gold medals (1996, 1997, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2013), four silver medals (1998, 2001, 2009, 2011) and four bronze medals (2000, 2003, 2005, 2014). There was no tournament held in 1999.

Schedule

Date Opponent Time (ET)/Result
Sun., July 5 Germany W, 7-3
Mon., July 6 Slovakia W, 6-0
Tues., July 7 Canada L, 4-5 (OT)
Thurs., July 9 Sweden (Quarterfinals) L, 2-5
Fri., July 10 Slovenia (Placement Game) W, 5-2

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