1.) J. Wise (USA)

2.) J. Gruden (USA)

3.) J. Farabee (USA)

A five-goal second period pushed the U.S. National Under-18 Team past Sioux City Saturday night, recording a 9-2 win over the Musketeers at USA Hockey Arena. The U18s are now 17-11-1-2-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL-T) for the season.

Trevor Janicke (Maple Grove, Minn.) was the first to find the net 8:35 into the first period, when he secured a pass from Jonathan Gruden (Rochester, Mich.) and poked the puck behind the Musketeer goaltender to make it a 1-0 game.

 Sioux City then took the lead after scoring two consecutive goals at 15:42 and 16:11. 

With 15 seconds left in the frame, Gruden managed to tie up the game, 2-2. Adam Samuelsson (San Diego, Calif.) sent the puck to Gruden on the doorstep, who finished off a shot to make it an even game headed into the second period.

At 3:38 of the second frame, Gavin Hain (Grand Rapids, Minn.) scored a shorthanded goal with assistance from Adam Samuelsson to give the U18s a 3-2 lead early in the second.

 Less than three minutes later, Oliver Wahlstrom (Quincy, Mass.) redirected a blocked shot from Joel Farabee (Cicero, N.Y.) past the Musketeers for the U18s’ fourth goal of the night. K’Andre Miller (Minnetonka, Minn.) picked up a secondary assist on the goal.

 Gruden recorded his third point of the night when he passed the puck to Jake Wise (Reading, Mass.), who finished it off to give the U18s a 5-3 lead halfway through the second.

 Within the final five minutes of the frame, both Jake Pivonka (Naperville, Ill.) and Farabee netted goals to make it 7-2 headed into the third period.  

 In the final 20 minutes of action, Wahlstrom and Jack DeBoer (Madison, N.J.) both tacked on goals to finalize the 9-2 win.

The U18s outshot the Musketeers, 45-19.

Drew DeRidder (Fenton, Mich.) made 17 saves on the night.

The U18s will hit the road to face the Youngstown Phantoms on Monday, Jan. 15th at 1:35 PM EST at Covelli Center.