1.) J. Napravnik (DM)

2.) T. Paquette (DM)

3.) N. Werbik (DM)

URBANDALE, Iowa. – Despite an early, two-goal lead, the U.S. National Under-17 Team fell to the Des Moines Buccaneers Friday night, 5-3, in the first of a two-game series at Buccaneer Arena.

The U17s are now 20-7-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) overall and Team USA is 11-9-0-0 in USHL matchups.

Judd Caulfield (Grand Forks, N.D.) was the first to find the net, scoring at 6:21 in the second period. Danny Weight (Lattingtown, N.Y.) capitalized on a turnover and sent the puck to Caulfield, who was able to stuff it behind Des Moines goaltender Jake Kucharski for a Team USA goal.

Three minutes later, Matthew Boldy (Millis, Mass.) corralled a puck sent from Ryan Siedem (Madison, N.J.) at the blue line to score the U17s’ second goal of the night. Alex Turcotte (Island Lake, Ill.) was credited a secondary assist on the goal.

The Buccaneers’ Erik Urbank retaliated for a goal of his own at the 10:30 mark to put Des Moines on the board, but no additional goals allowed Team USA to enter the third period with a one-goal lead.

At the 17:13 mark, Des Moines tied the game courtesy of a goal from Brian Halonen, but Weight managed to score off an assist from Owen Lindmark (Naperville, Ill.) to put the U17s back in the lead just a minute later.

Tyler Paquette capitalized on a scoring opportunity for Buccaneers at 6:23 in the third period to knot up the score 3-3, and an additional goal from Julian Napravnik at 13:28 put Des Moines in the lead for the first time of the game.

An empty-net goal from Nicolas Werbik finalized the 5-3 score. 

Cameron Rowe (Wilmette, Ill.) finished the night with 30 saves.

The Buccaneers outshot Team USA, 35-21.

The U17s will return to action again on Saturday, Jan. 6 at 7:05 PM CST, where they will finish the two-game series with the Buccaneers.