Team USA fell behind early in the first period after Muskegon scored a pair of goals to take a 2-0 lead, but McGroarty cut the deficit to 2-1 after burying a feed from Devin Kaplan (Bridgewater, N.J.) past Muskegon goalie Nathan Reid. 

Howard extended his impressive scoring streak to 16 games, putting away a rebound in the Muskegon crease to even the score at 2-2 with just over a minute to play in the second period. 

Gauthier gave the U.S. its first lead of the night on a 5-on-3 power play in the middle stanza, collecting a tic-tac-toe feed from Seamus Casey (Estero, Fla.) and Tyler Duke (Strongsville, Ohio) firing a laser from the right circle past Reid to make it a 3-2 game. 

Muskegon rallied to tie the game heading into the final intermission, and Christophe Tellier scored at the 7:02 mark of the third period to lift the Lumberjacks to a 4-3 victory. 

Tyler Muszelik (Long Valley, N.J) stopped 25 shots in goal for Team USA. 

The U17s return to action Jan. 8-9 with a series against the Chicago Steel at USA Hockey Arena.