U18s Fall Short Against Purple Eagles, 4-1

USA Hockey National Team Development Program

U18s Fall Short Against Purple Eagles, 4-1

By USA Hockey's NTDP, 10/24/25, 8:30PM EDT

Trottier nets first of the season

Photo by Rena Laverty

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. - The U.S. National Under-18 Team fell to the Niagara Purple Eagles, 4-1, tonight inside the Dwyer Ice Arena.

Niagara struck first with a shot from the slot at 6:30 in the first to make it 1-0. A strong Purple Eagles defense kept the shots 7-0 in favor of Niagara midway through the first, but Mikey Berchild (Minnetonka, Minn.) and Lukas Zajic (Plainfield, Ill.) had good looks on net :36 seconds apart to up the pressure but didn't break through. Team USA outshot Niagara, 5-1, in the upcoming minutes, however, the Purple Eagles put another one through at 15:38 to make it 2-0 after the first 20.

Box Score

Niagara struck again at 4:45 of the second period. Parker Trottier (Edina, Minn.) found twine on the power play for Team USA to get the team on the board at 10:46 of the second. Dayne Beuker (Portland, Ore.) rushed into the offensive zone and make a quick pass to Sammy Nelson (Maple Grove, Minn.) on his wing. Nelson scanned the ice and fed it to Trottier who finished it off from the slot, past Niagara's starting netminder Mitchell Day.

Niagara made it 4-1 at 10:03 of the third after it had a bounce go its way as an initial shot was saved but bounced off the end glass to the top of the net and across the goal line. The U.S. gave one final effort but fell short to the Purple Eagles, 4-1.

Luke Carrithers (Maple Grove, Minn.) started in net for Team USA and turned aside 22 shots.

The U18s finish off its New York road trip as it travels to Cornell tomorrow (Oct. 25) to face off against Cornell University. The matchup against the Big Red is set for 7:00 p.m. ET inside Lynah Rink.