Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Big Night For Badgers At World Juniors

Stop me if you've heard this before, Derek Stepan had a huge night. The sophomore pivot and captain of team USA had 4 points in a big 12-1 win for Team USA yesterday over Latvia. (Team USA also beat Switzerland 3-0 on Sunday)

Stepan has absolutely blown up in this tournament and is really making it less and less likely every time I see him play that he will be in a Badger uniform next season. The Hastings, MN native is not only leading Team USA in scoring so far in the tournament with eight points in three games, but he's also tied with four other players for first overall in the tournament in scoring.

Defensive partners John Ramage and Jake Gardiner (pictured) also found themselves on the score sheet in the blowout against Latvia. Both collected a pair of assists for their first points of the tournament.

Here is the lineup from the Latvia game for Team USA:

29 Jerry D'Amigo - 21 Derek Stepan (C) - 10 Tyler Johnson
16 Jason Zucker - 17 Ryan Bourque - 19 Jordan Schroeder (A)
20 Chris Kreider - 22 A.J. Jenks - 26 Jeremy Morin
23 Kyle Palmieri - 9 Philip McRae - 8 Danny Kristo
14 Luke Walker

Defense
5 David Warsofsky (A) - 11 John Carlson
4 Matt Donovan - 24 Cam Fowler
18 Brian Lashoff - 2 John Ramage
28 Jake Gardiner

Goaltenders
30 Mike Lee
1 Jack Campbell

Team USA takes on Team Canada in the (so far) biggest match up of the tournament on New Years Eve at 7 PM Central Time. Canada is also 3-0 and looks to be playing very well. You can catch the game live on the NHL Network.

By the way, hey Canada, neck guards are for douche bags.
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