Chris Douglas (St. Cloud, Fla.) opened the scoring just :21 into the contest on an unassisted long-range effort from the blue line.
Four minutes later, captain Josh Pauls (Green Brook, N.J.) put home a loose puck in front of the net to double Team USA’s lead to 2-0.
Jack Wallace (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) then made it 3-0 at the 6:07 mark to finish a nice passing play from Colin Gooley (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) and Brody Roybal (Northlake, Ill.). The play started on the left side of the blueline where Gooley dished the puck to an oncoming Roybal. Roybal cut down the center of the ice before backhanding a pass over to Wallace who fired a right-handed shot from the slot into the top right corner.
With 2:48 left in the opening frame, Roman tallied his first of the game off assists from McDermott and Ralph DeQuebec (San Pedro, Calif.). After collecting the puck on the left wall, Roman cut into the slot and showed great patience before lifting a shot over Norway’s goaltender Haugen.
Just over a minute and a half later, Farmer fired a sharp-angle shot from just above the right goal line into the top-left corner for a 5-0 U.S. lead to enter the first intermission.
The middle stanza opened with Roman’s second goal of the game 14 seconds into the period.
Just six minutes later, Noah Grove (Frederick, Md.) started a trio of U.S. goals in a 56-second span. After Grove one-timed a bank-pass from Wallace, Roybal tallied 34 seconds later before McDermott scored another 22 seconds after that to push Team USA’s lead to 9-0 after two periods of play.
In the final stanza, Kyle Zych (East Falmouth, Mass.) tallied 5:32 into the frame off a pass from Farmer to account for the 10-0 final.
U.S. netminder Steve Cash (Overland, Mo.) turned aside three shots through the first two periods of play before Jen Lee (San Francisco, Calif.) made one save in relief for the win.
NOTES: Luke McDermott was named the U.S. Player of the Game … For complete game statistics, click here … Labatt USA and Toyota are proud sponsors of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team … Dan Brennan (Colorado Springs, Colo.), director of sled national teams for USA Hockey, is serving as the general manager of the 2018-19 U.S. National Sled Hockey Team … For complete coverage of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team, click here.
