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2004 World U18 Championship - U.S. Tops Canada, 2-1

April 14, 2004

United States Stages 2-1 Comeback Win Against Canada To Advance To Semifinals Of IIHF Under-18 World Championship

MINSK, Belarus -- Goaltender Cory Schneider (Marblehead, Mass.) recorded 38 saves and the United States National Under-18 Team (4-0-0) overcame a 1-0 deficit by scoring twice in the third period for a 2-1 victory here yesterday over rival Canada at the 2004 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 World Championship. Schneider earned the game's "Best Player" honor.

In a match-up of the tournament's only undefeated squads, Team USA earned the top seed in its Group with the win and automatically advanced to the Semifinal Round on April 16. Team USA will meet the winner of a quarterfinal match-up between the second-place team in Group B and the third-place team from Group A at 9 a.m EDT. In Group B, Russia earned the other bye to the semifinals. The United States' history in the event includes capturing the gold medal at the 2002 IIHF Under-18 World Championship, and advancing to bronze-medal game last year, finishing fourth.

The Canadians struck first as Frederick Cabana scored on a bad-angle goal that surprised Schneider in the second stanza. The goal came just 1:28 into the period, but it was the only miscue Schneider committed, turning aside numerous point-blank shots and finishing the final two periods with 16 and 12 saves, repectively.

Forward Phil Kessel (Madison, Wis.), who leads the tournament in scoring with eight points on five goals and three assists, opened the scoring for the U.S. as he did the previous night against Belarus. Kessel drove to the right face-off circle and unleashed a snapshot just underneath the crossbar on the blocker side of Canadian goaltender Devan Bubnyk.

The U.S. power-play was held quiet until the third period when Brett Bevis (Harvard, Mass.) took a feed from Jarod Palmer (Fridley, Minn.) and sent a low liner toward the net for the game winner. A ricochet off of a Canadian defenseman into the net gave Bevis his first goal and first point of the tournament.

Team USA and Schneider withstood a furious finish as Canada, needing the win (a tie would have also given the U.S. the Group's top seed), pulled its goaltender with 1:45 left in the game.

www.usahockey.com.

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TEAM    SCORING PIM   PP  SHOTS GOALTENDER (saves)
USA    0-0-2 38 1-9 23 Schneider (38)
Canada 0-1-0  30 0-8 39 Dubnyk (21)

Scoring:

USA: Kessel (G), Bevis (GWPPG), Scero (A), Fritsche (A), Palmer (A).
Canada: Cabana (G), O�Neill (A).