Photo by Rena Laverty
PLYMOUTH, Mich. - Kamil Bednarik (Chicago, Ill.) tallied a goal and two assists to give him eight points over the last three games, but the U.S. National Under-18 Team couldn't hang onto a lead in an eventual 6-5 shootout loss to the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders at USA Hockey Arena.
Cedar Rapids opened up the scoring at 13:31 of the first period. Loa Milfors' pass across the crease tipped off Colin Grable’s stick before hitting Hans Martin Ulvebne, who stopped it on a dime to tap it in.
Highlights
Team USA tied things up 44 seconds later on the power play. After the initial shot attempt from Teddy Stiga (Sudbury, Mass.) rebounded back beyond the net, LJ Mooney (West Mifflin, Pa.) took an bad-angle shot from behind the goal line which bounced off the stick of a defenseman and in for a goal. Kamil Bednarik (Chicago, Ill.) tallied a secondary assist.
USA took the 2-1 lead at 15:25. Brodie Ziemer (Hutchinson, Minn.) took a breakout pass from Noah Lapointe (Hinsdale, Ill.) into the offensive zone and left a behind-the-back pass to James Hagens (Hauppauge, N.Y.). Hagens tapped the puck back to Ziemer, who wristed it into the top right corner.
Cedar Rapids tied the game with only 41 seconds remaining in the opening frame. Zach Sharp’s shot from the top of the faceoff circle hit the back of the net. Aiden Welch and Kason Muscutt earned the assists.
Team USA regained the lead at 6:03 of the middle stanza. Bednarik started the play with a pass to Christian Humphreys (Pittsburgh, Pa.), who perfectly tapped it ahead onto the stick of a diving Cole Eiserman (Newburyport, Mass). Eiserman redirected the puck over the pad of Rough Riders goaltender Rudy Guimond to make it 3-2.
The U18s doubled their lead less than two minutes later. Logan Hensler (Woodbury, Minn.) blocked a Cedar Rapids shot, corralled the puck and chipped it up the ice to Brendan McMorrow (Lakeville, Minn.). He threw the puck ahead to Austin Baker (White Lake, Mich.) at center ice, where he took it up the left wing before scoring glove-side.
Bednarik recorded his first goal and third point of the night halfway through the second, putting the U18s up 5-2. Stiga set up Mooney at the left faceoff dot, whose shot hit Guimond and stalled in front of the crease. Bednarik snagged the rebound, turned, and slapped the puck in to increase the USA lead to three.
Cedar Rapids got one back on the power play at 4:45 of the third period. Ben Muthersbaugh intercepted the clearing attempt and though his initial shot was deflected, the rebound trickled right to the stick of Landan Resendes to make the game, 5-3.
The RoughRiders tied things up after scoring two consecutive goals in a four-minute span to push the game to overtime. First, Joel Kjellberg slipped one in five-hole from the left faceoff circle and Ulvebne followed from behind his own net and drove up the ice to score the equalizer.
Overtime ended with the game still tied, sending the game to a shootout. Cedar Rapids scored on all three of their attempts to secure the win.
The two sides will square off again tomorrow at 7 p.m. at USA Hockey Arena. Tickets for game two of Military Appreciation Weekend are available at USAHockeyNTDP.com/tix.
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