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U.S. Opens Five Nations Play With 9-3 Victory Over Slovakia

By USA Hockey, 08/13/19, 9:00AM EDT

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FÜSSEN, Germany – The U.S. Under-17 Men's Select Team opened the 2019 Five Nations Tournament in convincing fashion today, defeating Slovakia, 9-3, here at Füssen Arena. 

Team USA will have Wednesday off before continuing play Thursday with a matchup against Switzerland. Puck drop is slated for a 6:30 p.m. local time start (9 a.m. ET) and can be streamed via SportDeutschland.tv.  

The U.S. got off to a fast start with Bennett Schimek (Mendota Heights, Minn.) beating Slovakian goaltender Elias Rastislav just 1:27 into play. Joe Palodichuk (Cottage Grove, Minn.) initiated the play when he collected a turnover in the defensive zone and found Schimek for an early 1-0 U.S. lead.

Team USA struck again just two minutes later when Austen May (Woodhaven, Mich.) buried a deflected pass from Jackson Blake (La Grange, Ill.) to extend the lead to 2-0.

Slovakia generated a pair of scoring chances midway through the first frame, but Hobie Hedquist (Heron Lake, Minn.) stood tall to keep it a 2-0 game. Kenny Connors (Glen Mills, Penn.) and Blake added two more goals in the final minutes of the period to give the United States a 4-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

In the middle stanza, Slovakia scored a trio of goals in a 48 second-window just past the midway point of the period to make it a 4-3 game. Jack Silich (Long Grove, Ill.) and Luke Mittelstadt (Eden Prairie, Minn.) responded in the period’s closing minutes to give the U.S. a 6-3 lead through two periods of play.

Highlights

A three-goal third-period for the U.S. sealed the 9-3 victory as Schimeck and Silich each tallied their second goals of the night before Tyler Haskins (Rochester, Minn.) scored the final U.S. goal with 1:25 to play in regulation.

NOTES: Jackson Blake was named the U.S. Player of the Game … Matt Argentina (Philadelphia, Penn.) recorded five assists to lead the U.S. in scoring … Follow Team USA throughout the 2019 Five Nations Tournament here.

2019 U17 Five Nations

U17 Five Nations History

U.S. Schedule

Date Opponent Time (Local/ET)/Result Streaming Statistics
Fri., Aug. 9 Red Bull Academy U-18 (Exh.) W, 7-1 N/A N/A
Sun., Aug. 11 Germany (Exh.) W, 5-0 N/A N/A
Tues., Aug. 13 Slovakia W, 9-3 SportDeutschland.tv Box Score
Thurs., Aug. 15 Switzerland W, 5-2 SportDeutschland.tv Box Score
Fri., Aug. 16 Czech Republic L, 3-6 SportDeutschland.tv Box Score
Sat., Aug. 17 Germany W, 7-3 SportDeutschland.tv Box Score

U17 Five Nations News