YOUNGSTOWN PHANTOMS:  The NTDP squares up with the rival Youngstown Phantoms for a trio of contests this week that begins with the U18s hosting for Thanksgiving Eve.

The Phantoms have earned 14 points in 14 games this season and enter in 7th place in the USHL's Eastern Conference.

William Whitelaw has paced the Youngstown attack as the lone skater averaging more than a point-per-game with 17 (9g-8a) on the year. Shane Lachance (9g-4a) and Jake Rozzi (5g-7a) have aided the scoring while defenseman Andrew Strathmann (1g-12a) is tied for fourth among defensemen in scoring across the USHL.

Jacob Fowler has appeared in 11 games in net for the Phantoms and performed to a 3-4-3-1 record, 3.10 GAA and .898 save percentage.

After Wednesday night's game, the Under-17 Team will travel to Ohio for a weekend pair on Friday and Saturday night. After this weekend, the two sides will have three more pairs of games for the rest of the season.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY TERRIERS: The U.S. National Under-18 Team will travel to Beantown to start its pair of road Kroger College Series contests against the BU Terriers.

Boston University comes into the weekend off a split with Northeastern last week, falling 2-0 Friday night before responding with a 4-3 overtime victory Saturday on a game-winning goal from NTDP alum Lane Hutson. Overall, the Terriers have won four of their last five games and moved up to #11 in the USA Hockey Magazine Men's College Hockey Poll.

The team is led in scoring by senior forward Matt Brown who has a team-high five goals, eight assists and 13 points. Hutson (4g-6a) and captain Domenick Fensore (2g-6a), another NTDP alum, are second and third, respectively, in overall scoring and lead the Terriers blueliners.

NTDP alum Drew Commesso has started six games for BU and holds an impressive 4-2-0 record, 2.56 GAA and .913 SV%.

The game will be the 12th in program history between the two sides, where most recently the U18s topped BU last season by a 4-3 final in Boston.

YALE BULLDOGS: The U18s wrap a three-game week Sunday afternoon in New Haven, Conn., to take on the Yale Bulldogs. The game will be the fifth between the NTDP and Yale in history, with Team USA holding a narrow 2-1-1 record, most recently winning 2-1 all the way back in 2007.

The Bulldogs have struggled to start the 2022-23 campaign. After winning their season opener against Brown, Yale has lost its next seven matchups, falling in two road games last weekend to Cornell (5-2) and Colgate (8-1).

Sophomore forward Briggs Gammill is the lone Bulldog with multiple goals on the year and is tied for the team lead in points with David Chen, who both have three.

Nathan Reid has backstopped to a 1-5-0 record, but has put out a 3.21 GAA and .898 SV%.