USA Under-18s Defeat Belarus 7-1

(above) DU recruit Jason Zucker had a goal & an assist against Belerus on Sunday

Host Belarus is still looking for its first win at the World U18 Championship after falling 7-1 against the United States. The result did nothing to alter USA’s second-place finish in Group A and Belarus’ place in the relegation round.

Five different U.S. players scored in the shutout win. DU recruit Jason Zucker, Rocco Grimaldi and Brandon Saad paced all players with a goal and an assist each. Grimaldi will be visiting DU this summer for a visit. He is also looking at Notre Dame and North Dakota.

It took most of the first period for the Americans to get on the board, but they rallied with two quick goals to take the 2-0 lead just before the break. Another pair of goals in the first four minutes of the second period doubled the lead to 4-0.

Luke Moffat put in his first goal of the event to bump the advantage to 5-0. Shortly after, Belarus spoiled the shutout when Artur Abmiotka put in a power-play goal to end the period on a positive note.

The U.S. continued to find little resistance from the Belarus defense in the third period, putting in two power-play goals in the first five minutes to make it a 7-1 affair.

The U.S. will make the move to Minsk tomorrow and will face the Czechs in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. Belarus will play its first relegation round game against Slovakia. Canada lost to Sweden 5-4.

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