Casey Powell and Drew Snider scored four goals a piece as USA cruised to a 22-2 victory over Ireland to vault them into a semi-final matchup against the Iroquois Nation. The Iroquois defeated the USA 13-9 in the preliminary game earlier in the tournament.
This was total domination by the USA. Ireland would finally get on the board eight minutes into the game to trail 4-1. That’s as close as they would get as the USA would pump in seventeen straight goals. With the game well in hand, the USA would let the shot clock run out and toss the ball into the corner, and some easy shots were taken on the goalie. Then with just under five minutes to go, defenseman Brian Megill would take a violent cross-check to the head away from the ball. USA was given a penalty shot and Riorden deposited his third goal to close out the scoring.
Besides Powells and Sniders fours goals they also had seven and five assists respectively, Garrett Thul (3G/1A), Blaze Riorden (3G/3A), Kevin Buchanan (3G/5A), Jeff Ratcliffe (3G/1A) Greg Downing (1G/1A) and Joe Walters (1G/8A) also got into the action.
David Mather was given the start for USA, stopping 12-13 shots before stepping aside seven minutes into the third quarter as Chris Collins would see his first action of the tournament and stop 10-11 shots faced.
USA fired 80 shots, 66 were on goal while Ireland fired 47 with 24 going on goal. On the face-offs USA dominated by winning 25-28. Jeff Reynolds was a perfect 14-14, and CJ Costabile was a mere 11-14. The ground balls also went in the favor of USA 77-47.
USA will face Iroquois tonight at 7:30. The other match up will have Israel face Canada at 4:30.
When the USA face the Iroquois tonight it will be different then the first time. This time Casey Powell will be in the line-up. This will definitely add a different dimension to the game.
A win would vault them into the gold medal game for the first time in history.
The winners will play for the Gold at the Carrier Dome Sunday at 4pm, while the other two teams will play for the Bronze medal at 1pm.
Joel White who went down hard with an ankle injury in the first half sat out the rest of the game with an ice wrap around his ankle, so his availability is unknown not just for the sem-final but for the rest of the tournament. White is one of their best defensemen on the floor so losing him would be a big blow. Brian Megill is doing fine after the cross-check to the head.
