Photo by Rena Laverty
PLYMOUTH, Mich. - Fourteen different players earned a point, including three apiece from James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.), Lucas Van Vliet (Livonia, Mich.), Christian Humphreys (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Shane Vansaghi (St. Louis, Mo.) as the U.S. National Under-18 Team used five unanswered goals to top the Muskegon Lumberjacks, 9-3, Thursday afternoon at USA Hockey Arena.
The U18s jumped out to an early 1-0 lead just 3:12 into the game. Van Vliet took a pass from Brendan McMorrow (Lakeville, Minn.) up the left wing and fired in from the circle to beat Beau Lane through the five-hole. Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen (Northville, Mich.) cleared the puck out of the defensive zone to pick up the extra helper on the game's opening goal.
Highlights
Muskegon responded back to tie the game less than two minutes later, but McMorrow found the back of the net with 5:03 to play in the period to give the U18s a 2-1 advantage after 20 minutes. From behind the Muskegon cage, the University of Denver commit wheeled in between a pair of defenders, spun to his forehand and roofed a quick wrister for his fourth goal of the season. Van Vliet picked up a helper to give both skaters multi-point nights, and Vansaghi added his name to the scoresheet with an assist.
Humphreys kicked off a five-goal second period with a power play marker just 35 seconds into the frame. Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass.) found Kamil Bednarik (Chicago, Ill.) behind the cage. He sent the puck to Humphreys at the left flank, where he pounded a one-timer for a 3-1 USA lead.
Muskegon's Ethan Whitcomb brought it back to a score at 2:47, but Vansaghi restored the two-goal lead with a redirection goal just shy of the halfway mark. EJ Emery (Compton, Calif.) took the initial shot from the right point that Vansaghi got a stick on before it snuck through Lane.
Eighty seconds later, Sacha Boisvert netted his 15th goal of the season, but the U18s once more found the answer in the form of a Brodie Ziemer (Hutchinson, Minn.) power-play tally to make it 5-3 after two periods of play. A quick passing sequence from Hagens and Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass.) set up the Team USA captain for his ninth score of the campaign.
The U18s added four more unanswered tallies in the final 20 minutes of regulation to pull out a 9-3 win. Humphreys netted his second of the game five minutes into the third off a set-up from Hagens to give both skaters multi-point games.
Eiserman found the back of the net off a ridiculous angle from behind the net and banked a shot off a defender's skate and in at 12:10.
Vansaghi added his second score and Stiga capitalized 20 seconds later late in regulation to cap the U18 scoring.
Jack Parsons (Ithaca, N.Y.) picked up the win in net to extend his record to 8-5-2. Nick Kempf (Chicago, Ill.) played the second half of the game and made four saves in relief.
The Under-18 Team finishes the weekend with a pair of NCAA contests as they return to the Kroger College Series. Next up, they'll travel to the University of North Dakota to take on the Fighting Hawks Saturday evening. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. ET from Ralph Engelstad Arena.
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