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The Czech Republic Skates Past Team USA, 6-2; Russia Blanks Finland, 4-0

By USAHockeyNTDP.com, 02/14/18, 6:00PM EST

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USA Hockey National Team Development Program Notebook

Photo by Rena Laverty

The U.S. National Under-18 Team fell, 6-2 to the Czech Republic, despite outshooting them 46-24, Wednesday night at the U18 Five Nations.

Russia defeated Finland, 4-0 in the first game of the day today at USA Hockey Arena.

Scroll down for game recaps

STATS: CZE 6, USA 2

STATS: RUS 4, FIN 0

The Czech Republic opened scoring at 3:21 of the first with a shot from the front of the net by Karel Plasek. Jakub Lauko added an assist on the play.

Just over a minute after, at the 4:31 mark, Joel Farabee (Cicero, N.Y) evened the score at one a piece. He sent the puck in from the bottom of the right circle on a pass from Oliver Wahlstrom (Quincy, Mass.).

Matej Blumel gave the Czech Republic the lead at the 7:50 mark of the first with a goal on the power play.

After a turnover, the Czech Republic extended its lead at 10:03 of the first to lead, 3-1 after 20 minutes.

At 3:27 of the second period, Jack DeBoer (Madison, N.J) put a shot on net that was redirected by Erik Middendorf (Scottsdale, Ariz.) for the second USA goal of the night. Mattias Samuelsson (Voorhees, N.J) also added an assist on the play.

Blumel netted a natural hat trick with two goals in the second period at 13:02 and 18:45 of the second period and one at the 16:01 mark of the third to give the Czech Republic a 6-2 final.

Drew DeRidder (Fenton, Mich.) and Jonathon Mor  (Highland Park, Ill.) combined for 18 saves on the night. The Czech Republic’s Daniel Dvorak tallied 44 saves.

Team USA returns to action Friday, February 16 when they face off against Russia at 7 p.m. ET. Tickets are available at usahockeyntdp.com/20185nationstix

Highlights

Vasili Podkolzin sent the puck over Finland’s Jere Huhtamaa’s glove at the 4:50 mark of the second period. Semyon Kizimov and Daniil Zhuravlev picked up assists on the goal.

Grigory Denisenko had a partial breakaway with 4:00 left in the second period but Finland’s back-check negated the chance.

Ruslan Iskhakov extended Russia’s lead at 2:17 of the third period, pushing the puck past Huhtamaa on the rebound.

Andrei Svechnikov extended Russia’s lead, 3-0 on the power play at 13:46 of the third period. Denisenko and Zhuravlev both picked up their second points of the afternoon with the assists.

Ivan Morozov scored a short-handed empty net goal in the final minute to bring the game to its final of 4-0.

Russian goaltender Amir Miftakhof made 28 saves to earn the tournament’s first shutout performance. Finland goaltender Jere Huhtamaa made 26 saves on 29 shots.

Russia returns to action tomorrow at 3:30 when it faces off with the Czech Republic while Finland has a showdown with rival Sweden at 7 p.m.

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