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Photo by Rena Laverty
The U.S. National Under-18 Team will hit the road for a USHL road trip this weekend.
The U18s start their road trip in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Friday night for an 8:05 p.m. ET matchup with the RoughRiders.
The next day, they will travel to Chicago to take on the Steel at Fox Valley Ice Arena at 8:05 p.m. ET.
The U18s are coming off a two-game sweep of the Green Bay Gamblers last weekend. They outscored the Gamblers 9-3 in the two games. Going into the weekend they are 19-16-2-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) overall on the season.
The U.S. National Under-17 Team hosts the Bloomington Thunder on Saturday night for their lone matchup of the weekend.
The U17s fell to the first-ranked Chicago Steel last Saturday (Jan. 14) at Fox Valley Ice Arena before returning home for a holiday matinee matchup with the Muskegon Lumberjacks on Monday (Jan. 16) afternoon. Despite seven power-play opportunities, the U17s were unable to defeat the 'Jacks as they fell 3-0.
Friday @ Cedar Rapids RoughRiders
Puck Drop: 8:05 p.m. ET
Stream: HockeyTv.com
Saturday @ Chicago Steel
Puck Drop: 8:05 p.m. ET
Stream: HockeyTv.com
WRANGLING THE ROUGHRIDERS: The U18s open their road trip with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, who currently sit at 4-27-1-1 on the season.
In the last U18s last matchup with the RoughRiders, Dylan St. Cyr (Northville, Mich.) made 15 saves en route to his first career shutout with the NTDP. Logan Cockerill (Brighton, Mich.) scored the lone goal for the U18s in the 1-0 victory. Drew DeRidder made 37 stops on 38 shots for Cedar Rapids.
Forward Zac Robbins leads the RoughRiders offensively this season. He has posted 14 points (8-6-14) in 31 games for Cedar Rapids.
DeRidder and Zack LaRocque have split time in net this season, with DeRidder having the edge in wins (3), goals-against-average (3.42) and save percentage (.889).
MELTING STEEL: The U18s travel to Chicago for a challenging matchup against the first-ranked Steel on Saturday evening. The Steel currently sit atop the USHL with 50 points and a record of 23-6-1-3. Chicago is the highest scoring team (117 goals for) and have the second ranked defense (76 goals against) through 33 games.
In the U18s last matchup with the Steel, defenseman Tyler Inamoto (Barrington, Ill.) scored a "Teddy Bear Toss" goal but Team USA was unable to secure any more goals in a 4-1 loss on Dec. 3 at USA Hockey Arena. Since that matchup, the Steel have earned two victories against the U17s.
Chicago offers a balanced offense attack with Reggie Lutz (14-15-29), Jake Jaremko (8-20-28) and Johnny Walker (15-10-25) all ranking in the top 20 in USHL scoring.
Chicago has used three different goaltenders this year. Ales Stezka has led the way in net, earning 13 wins in 19 appearances and posting a 2.20 GAA and .920 SV%. Peter Thome was acquired from Omaha in late November and has earned two victories in three games for the Steel. Tommy Napier has also picked up eight wins in 10 appearances and has posted a team leading 1.86 GAA and .929 SV%.
SILENCING THE THUNDER: The U17s welcome the Bloomington Thunder to the confines of USA Hockey Arena for a 7 p.m. ET matchup Saturday. The Thunder currently sit two spots ahead of Team USA in the USHL standings, earning 35 points with a record of 16-13-13-0 in 32 games this season.
The U17s split a weekend series with the Thunder earlier this season at U.S. Cellular Coliseum. After falling 6-2 on Friday (Nov. 18) night, the U17s bounced back for a 3-1 victory on Saturday (Nov. 19) after goals by Joel Farabee (Victor, N.Y.), Jake Goldowski (Thornhurst, Pa.) and Oliver Wahlstrom (Quincy, Mass.).
Vladislav Dzhishvili leads the Thunder in scoring with 22 points (11-11-22) in 31 games this season. The Thunder have also had scoring help from their blue line in the form of Wyatt Kalynuk, who has posted 21 points (4-17-21) and a +8 plus/minus rating in 32 games this season.
DYLAN ST. CYR NAMED CCM/USHL GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK: U18s goaltender Dylan St. Cyr (Northville, Mich.) was named CCM/USHL Goaltender of the Week for the second time this season after stopping 56 shots en route to leading his team to a pair of victories over Green Bay on Jan. 13-14.
St. Cyr earned his second Goaltender of the Week award this season following a weekend in which he stopped 24 of 25 shots as the game’s first star in a win over Green Bay on Jan. 13 before completing the sweep against the Gamblers with a 32-save performance as the game’s third star on Jan. 14. He is now 8-2-0-1 on the season and has won seven of his last eight starts. The University of Michigan commit also sports a .917 save percentage (T-8th in USHL) and 2.28 goals-against average (9th in USHL). He was previously named CCM/USHL Goaltender of the Week on Dec. 12.
NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING MIDTERM RANKINGS: Eighteen players with ties to the NTDP, including 14 current players, were ranked in the National Hockey League's Central Scouting's North American midterm rankings that were released yesterday (Jan. 18). Current U18 forward Grant Mismash (Edina, Minn.) was the 30th ranked skater. Boston University's Jake Oettinger (2014-16/Lakeville, Minn.) is the third ranked North American goaltender. A full list of NTDP and USHL players can be found here.
ALUMNI UPDATE: As of Wednesday, Jan. 18, 73 NTDP alumni have played in the National Hockey League this season along with 58 in the American Hockey League and 70 with NCAA Division I programs.
PROMO NIGHTS AT USA HOCKEY ARENA: The NTDP will host several promotional nights at USA Hockey Arena in January:
Tickets for all these games are available here.
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