After netting three power-play scores last night, the Force used the man advantage to go up again early tonight. Jordan Ronn found the back of the net 17 seconds into the first man-up opportunity to give Fargo a 1-0 lead at 5:59 of the first.

USA defenseman Asher Barnett (Wilmette, Ill.) answered less than a minute later off an offensive-zone draw. LJ Mooney (West Mifflin, Pa.) won the faceoff and Will Moore (Ithaca, N.Y.) pushed it back to Barnett, who put it by a screened Alan Lendak to even the score. 

The U18s quickly got another goal from a blueliner, as Maceo Phillips (Wayzata, Minn.) went coast-to-coast down the left wing and flipped his wrister over the blocker of Lendak from the top of the right circle. 

Before the close of the period, Will Horcoff (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) doubled the U.S. lead to 3-1. After taking a drop-pass from Moore, Horcoff snapped a quick wrister past a screened Lendak for his third score of the season. 

In the middle 20 minutes, the shots were tied at nine apiece from each side, but neither side could get one past the opposing netminder. USA's Quinlan made all nine stops in the frame to give him a two-period total of 18 saves.