US Hockey U-18 Team!

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2004 World U18 Championship - U.S. Takes Silver

April 18, 2004

United States Captures Silver Medal At 2004 IIHF Under-18 World Championship

MINSK, Belarus -- The United States National Under-18 Team (5-1-0) captured the silver medal here today at the 2004 International Ice Hockey Federation Under-18 World Championship after falling to Russia, 3-2, in the gold-medal game. With the scored tied, 1-1, after two periods, Russia tallied two goals in a 1:06 span to seal the victory. Team USA climbed to within one goal with :38 remaining on a marker by forward Phil Kessel (Madison, Wis.), and then the U.S. notched what initially appeared to be the game-tying goal with just seconds remaining before it was disallowed due to a dislodged net.

The contest represented the third straight year that the U.S. and Russia have met in a medal game at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship, and the second time in three years that the United States has qualified for the finals. The U.S. defeated Russia to take home the gold medal in 2002, and last year lost in the bronze-medal game, finishing fourth.

The U.S. opened the scoring in the first period on a power-play blast from Nate Hagemo (Edina, Minn.) that bested Russian goaltender Anton Khudobin. Hagemo, positioned on the left point, received a pass along the blue line from Kevin Porter (Detroit, Mich.) to set up the tally.

Russia evened the score, 1-1, at 6:53 of the second period as Kiriff Lyamin beat U.S. goaltender Cory Schneider (Marblehead, Mass.).

In the final session Roman Voloshenko registered an even-strength goal while Dimitri Shitikov tallied on a power play to put Russia up 3-1.

In a frantic final two minutes, the U.S. made it 3-2 at the 58:22 mark of the game as Kessel scored his seventh goal of the event. Kessel, attacking the right side of the Russian defensive zone, released a wrist shot past the glove of the Khudobin.

The U.S., with goaltender Schneider pulled for an extra attacker, then scored what appeared to be the game-tying goal with a few seconds left in the game, but the goal was waved off.

"This team can be proud that they fought until the absolute last second of this game and all the games they played in the tournament," said U.S. Head Coach John Hynes (Ann Arbor, Mich.).

Kessel, who at 16 was one of the younger players in the tournament, led all goal scorers and amassed 10 points (7-3) in six games to finish fifth overall in scoring.

Complete final stats for the entire event can be found at www.iihf.com and www.usahockey.com.

* * *

TEAM                      SCORING PIM PP SHOTS GOALTENDER (saves)
Russia        0-1-2--3 28 1-9  26   Khuboin (23)
United States 1-0-1--2 30 2-7 25   Schneider (23)

Scoring:
RUS: Lyamin (G), Voloshenko (G), Shitikov (PPG), Parishin (A), Yunkov
(A), Malkin (A).
USA: Hagemo (PPG,A), Kessel (G), Porter (A).