Feature Story
USHL well-represented at World Junior A Challenge
By Jon Garver
The United States sent a 21-player contingent to British Columbia last week to take part in the 2007 World Junior A Challenge. The event, which first occurred last year and
was played in Saskatchewan, was designed to bring the top junior players from across
the globe into one venue, for an event that features some of the best talent in
the world at the junior level. This was the first time that the United States took part in the event.
“For years we sent players to the Viking
Cup and that was always a wonderful experience for them,” said USHL President
Gino Gasparini. “When USA Hockey decided that we were
going to send a team to this event, we wanted to cooperate because it is
another great chance for the kids to get international experience.”
The event featured teams from across Europe and North America – Belarus, Russia, Germany in addition to the United States and two teams from Canada. USHL players made up 20 of the 21 players on the United States roster.
The United States opened round robin play with a 7-6 overtime win over Belarus. Omaha’s Barry Almeida scored the game-winning goal with just five
seconds left in overtime to gain the victory. For his effort, Almeida was named
the U.S. Player of the Game.
Almeida would weave his magic again in
the second game, scoring again in overtime to lift the United States to a 3-2 win over Canada East. Sioux City’s Josh Robinson made 35 saves in the game and was named the
U.S. Player of the Game.
Waterloo’s Blake Kessel was the tournament’s
leading scorer through the round robin portion of the event, with six points in
two games. Kessel would add one more point during the
tournament and finished as the top scoring defenseman in the tournament.
Team USA would face Canada West in the semifinals, and this would
turn out to be the only blemish on their record. The United States would fall behind early and never recover,
losing 5-1 to the team that would go on to win the tournament. Tri-City’s Mike Cichy scored the lone goal of the game for the United States. Sioux City’s Seth Helgason was named U.S.
Player of the Game.
The loss to Canada West placed the United States in the third-place game against Russia. The United States again fell behind early, trailing by a pair after one
period. Russia would build up a 5-3 lead after two periods before the United States would explode for six goals in the third period to take the
game 9-6 and bring home a bronze medal. Omaha’s Nico Sacchetti and Sioux Falls’ Nick Dineen paced the offense in
the game with three points apiece. Sacchetti was
named U.S. Player of the Game.
Almeida led Team USA in scoring and finished second overall in the tournament
with nine points (three goals, six assists) in four games.
“Obviously when you attend an event like
this, the goal is to make a good showing and hopefully bring home a gold medal
in the process,” Gasparini said. “It didn’t quite
work out that way this time, but the kids went up there and played hard. They
represented the United
States, the USHL,
their teams and themselves with class and we’re proud of the job they did.”
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