Under-17 Team opens Four Nations with win
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The U.S. National Under-17 Team received points from six different players, including two goals from Zach Golembiewski (St. Claire, Mich.), to secure a 4-2 win over Switzerland in the opening game of the 2007 Four Nations Tournament at in Russia on Friday.
"It was a great start to the tournament," said Ron Rolston, head coach of the U.S. National Under-17 Team. "Switzerland played hard and executed well, which made the game difficult for us at times. We stayed with what we wanted to do though, and we were able to make some things happen. We have to keep improving as the tournament continues because each game will present a new set of challenges for us."
The Swiss scored first period, at the 6:14 mark, off a goal from Ivan Incir.
Team USA tallied its first goal at 15:24 of the opening frame when Golembiewski took a feed from Jeremy Morin (Auburn, N.Y.) and beat Swiss goalie Remo Giovanni. Kyle Palmieri (Montvale, N.J.) gave his team a 2-1 lead just 50 seconds later with his ninth goal of the year off a helper from Drew Shore (Denver, Colo.).
Fabian Boss tallied a power-play goal for Switzerland 5:17 into the second stanza to tie the score at 2-2.
Chris Brown (Flower Mound, Texas) netted what proved to be the game-winning marker, unassisted, at the 7:22 mark of the second period. Less than five minutes later, Golembiewski struck again, this time with a man advantage. Cam Fowler (Farmington Hills, Mich.) earned the lone assist on the goal.
Team USA outshot Switzerland, 10-5, in the third period, but neither team scored in the stanza.
Overall, the U.S. National Under-17 Team held a 31-16 shot advantage in the game.
Brandon Maxwell (Winter Park, Fla.) stopped 14 of the 16 shots he faced, and improved to 4-4-0 for Team USA. Remo Giovanni made 27 saves in the loss for the Swiss. Both teams went 1-for-6 on the power play.
The U.S. National Under-17 Team returns to action in the Four Nations Tournament tomorrow against Slovakia at 2 p.m. local time and 6 a.m. ET.
NOTES: The U.S. Under-18 Team fell to Sweden, 5-3, in its first game of the Four Nations Tournament in Switzerland... Team USA's U-17 Team is 1-0-0 at the 2007 Four Nations Tournament ... Kyle Palmieri continues to lead Team USA with 13 points (9-4). He is on a two-game point streak (2-1) ... Travis Morin is on a three-game point streak (3-1) ... Zach Golembiewski is on a two-game point streak (2-2) ... Drew Shore is on a two-game point streak (0-2) ... Chris Brown notched his first game-winner of the year today ... Russia and Slovakia play in today's other Four Nations Tournament game ... Team USA meets Russia on Sunday at 4 p.m. local time and 8 a.m. ET.