POSTED: Saturday April 11th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

U.S. Nat'l U17 Team Drops Alpena, 4-1, in Game 3

U.S. National Under-17 Team Drops Alpena, 4-1, in Game 3 of Robertson Cup First-Round Series. Team USA Nets Three Third-Period Goals to Take 2-1 Series Lead.

ALPENA, Mich. – Austin Czarnik (Washington, Mich.) and Emerson Etem (Long Beach, Calif.) each tallied two points (1-1), while Brandon Maxwell (Winter Park, Fla.) made 26 saves, as the U.S. National Under-17 Team downed the Alpena IceDiggers, 4-1, here tonight in Game 3 of the Robertson Cup first-round series. Team USA took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

After a scoreless first period, Czarnik tallied the game’s first goal at 4:34 of the middle frame after Chase Balisy (Fullerton, Calif.) fed Czarnik, who one-timed a shot from the middle slot past netminder Nick Graves. At 8:36, Andy Yarber evened the score for Alpena. Maxwell made 13 saves to keep it tied after 40 minutes.

In the third stanza, Justin Faulk (South St. Paul, Minn.) gave the U.S. the 2-1 lead after he faked a shot, walked into the high slot and fired the puck off of an Alpena defender and into the net at 6:34. Just 1:05 later, Nick Shore (Denver, Colo.) doubled Team USA’s advantage after he tapped Etem’s pass just inside the near post for the goal. With just 27 seconds to play, Etem notched an empty-net goal to ice the 4-1 victory.

The U.S. National Under-17 Team will return to action at Alpena tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET for Game 4.

NOTES: Team USA out shot Alpena by a 34-27 margin ... Emerson Etem (3-1—4) and Kevin Clare (New Rochelle, N.Y./1-3—4) lead Team USA with four points each in the postseason ... Including the regular season, Team USA has posted an 11-1-1 record against the Diggers ... The U.S. finished the regular season in first place in the NAHL North Division.
GAME SUMMARY
Scoring By Period
USA013—4
ALP010—1

First Period - Scoring: None. Penalties: ALP, Sell (high-sticking), 4:37; USA, Etem (hooking), 9:58; USA, McCarthy (hooking), 13:08; ALP, Hughes (roughing), 16:47.

Second Period - Scoring: 1, USA, Czarnik (Balisy), 4:34; 2, ALP, Yarber (DeGrazia, Cheraso), 8:36. Penalties: ALP, Hughes (hooking), 9:56; USA, Fallon (checking from behind), 17:54; ALP, Puskar (interference), 19:21.

Third Period - Scoring: 3, USA, Faulk (Rust), 6:34; 4, USA, Shore (Etem), 7:39; 5, USA, Etem (Czarnik), 19:33 (en). Penalties: None.
Shots by Period123Total
USA13111034
ALP814527
    
Goaltenders (SH/SV)123Total
USA, Maxwell, 60:008-814-135-527-26
ALP, Graves, 59:5913-1311-109-733-30
      

Power Play: USA 0-3; ALP 0-3
Penalties: USA 4-8; ALP 4-8
Officials: Referees - Seth Ferguson; Linesmen - John McAfee, Joe Demizio
Attendance: 1,145

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Keywords · USA Hockey · US U-17 National Hockey Team

Name: Dave Fischer
Organization: USA Hockey
Email:
Phone: +1.719.538.1171
URL: http://www.usahockey.com/

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