UNITED STATES VS TEAM CANADA BLACK
by PAT BRETHAUER
Thursday November 7, 2014

In the Quarter final round Team USA finished strong and defeated Canada Black with a final score of 4 - 1.

"I thought Canada Black played real hard,"  Head Coach for Team USA Danton Cole said "They are a fast team and it was a good hard hockey game that went both ways. I always enjoy games like that especially when you win."

Team USA took a 2 goal lead in the first period and never looked back.  The first goal of the game came at 5:34 by Max Jones who was set up by Patrick Khodorenko from behind the net and Jones slapped it in.  Kailer Yamamotot also earned an assist on the play.   The second goal was scored by Joey Anderson on a two man advantage who was fed by Adam Fox and fired it over it over the glove of Canada’s netminder Stuart Skinner.  Chad Krys earned the assist on the play.   Shots on goal USA 11 – Canada 10.

Canada’s only goal was scored in the second period on the penalty kill after Jake Bean got control of the puck deep in USA’s end and shot the shorthanded goal in on a short angle.
 

Yamaoto gave the USA a two point spread 90 seconds later after picking up the puck in the middle and firing it into the top of the net.  Max Jones and Clayton Keller earned the assist on the play. Shots on goal USA 15 – Canada 10.
"It was a big goal by them to get the shorthanded goal to get the game to 2 – 1 it was tight," Coach Cole said "But to come back and get one you like to see that, I don’t mind a two goal lead."

In the third period the USA had control of the puck for most of the period outshooting Canada 15 – 4. The final goal of the game came at 8:42 in the third when Joey Anderson fired his second goal of the game with William Lockwood and Chad Krys assisting.

Anderson who said his team got better and improved towards the end of the game.  He also said the team did as their coach taught them and that is to keep their game simple.

"It felt good." Anderson said when asked about his two goals "I wasn’t really thinking about that too much I was more worried about winning.  I think that our team really helped me along,  clearly I was out front for both goals there wasn’t really much work for me to do. 

Despite the loss Stuart Skinner netminder for Canada played an outstanding game making 37 saves. 

"Stuart was exceptional today," Canada's head coach Kelly Nobes said about his goaltender. "He gave us a chance to certainly to win and credit to him for such a good performance."

USA netminder Jake Oettinger made 23 saves.

Canada went zero for four on the power play, USA scored once on six opportunities.

"It’s disappointing for the boys for sure," Canadian Coach Kelly Nobes said after the game. "I thought we were tentative to start the game and they obviously went up first but I thought we turned the corner and created a lot of scoring opportunities and had a lot of chances to keep the score close and make it a game. Unfortunately we could capitalized on many of those opportunities.

Nobes added "But you have to give credit to the US they are a good hockey club there structured you can see they play together you got to give them some credit."

Team USA will now face Sweden in the Semi final game on Friday at 3:00 pm at the RBC Centre.

Canada Black will play Slovakia for seventh position at 3:00 pm at Lambton Shores.

 
"The improvement that our guys showed from the first game to this game is incredible and it’s a real tight group.  And they certainly developed. That’s part of the mission here is that these guys get better and be able to represent this team again."  Nobes said

 ______________________________________________________________



Go to U17