PARDUBICE, Czech Republic -- Junior Cadiz (Los Angeles, Calif.), Raf Rodriguez (Oceanside, Calif.) and Travis Noe (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) each scored twice and goaltender Jerry Kuhn (Southgate, Mich.) turned in a 15-save effort to help the U.S. National Inline Team finish its preliminary-round schedule with a 6-0 win over Slovakia at the 2014 International Ice Hockey Federation Inline Hockey World Championship here today.
The U.S., which clinched the top seed in Group A, will play Germany in a quarterfinal-round matchup Thursday (June 5) at 12 p.m. ET.
Team USA (3-0-0-0) controlled the play throughout the first half and managed to build a 3-0 lead by halftime. Cadiz opened the scoring just 2:44 into the contest when he fired a one-timer past Slovakian goaltender Jozef Ondrekja from the edge of the left circle. Rodriguez doubled the U.S. advantage when he finished a pretty play with a backhander off the crossbar and in at 3:57 of the second stanza. Noe boosted Team USA's lead to 3-0 at 8:06 of the same quarter when he kicked a puck to his stick and beat Ondrekja on the glove side.
Rodriguez and Cadiz notched goals early in the second half to help widen the United States' lead to 5-0 at the end of the third quarter. Rodriguez finished a play with Matt White (Whittier, Calif.) and Derrick Burnett (Corona, Calif.) just 22 seconds into the third frame before Cadiz tapped in a backdoor pass from Noe at 5:31.
Noe's second tally of the contest came late in the fourth quarter on a cross-crease feed from Pat Lee (Schaumburg, Ill.) to close the scoring.