Force players tally a total of five points in Team USA win

Fargo Force players Matt Leitner, Eamonn McDermott and Colten St. Clair tallied a total of five points for Team USA in a 6-1 win over Belarus.  Leitner tallied three assists, Eamonn McDermott posted his first point with an assist and Colten St. Clair added a late goal for Team USA in the win.

From USA Hockey:

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - Led by Shane Berschbach's (Clawson, Mich./Indiana Ice) two goals and one assist, the U.S. Junior Select Team rolled past Belarus, 6-1, here tonight in its final preliminary-round game of the World Junior A Challenge at Credit Union Place in Summerside, P.E.I. With the victory, Team USA (1-0-1-0) secured second place in its group and will face Sweden Thursday (Nov. 5) in the quarterfinal round at 1 p.m. EST.

"I thought we played well tonight and had a lot of improvements in our game," said Mark Carlson, head coach of the 2009 U.S. Junior Select Team. "Even though the team hasn't been together for very long, everyone followed the plan and our power play and penalty kill worked well for us."

The U.S. garnered four power-play markers in the game, including two from Berschbach in the opening frame. While on a 5-on-3 advantage, Matt Leitner (Los Alamitos, Calif./Fargo Force), who was positioned in the high slot, sent a David Gerths' (Ankeny, Iowa/Lincoln Stars) pass to the left side of the net, where Berschbach fired the puck past Belarussian goaltender Stanislau Artynski to give Team USA a 1-0 lead at 14:42. Berschbach would net his second tally of the game 2:10 later when he directed another Leitner pass behind Artynski. Eamonn McDermott (Shaker Heights, Ohio/Fargo Force) collected his first assist of the tournament on the power-play goal.

In the second period, Team USA capitalized on another power play, with Berschbach and Leitner setting up Gerths at 7:27. Gerths took a Berschbach pass at the high slot and fired a onetimer over the netminder's blocker to give the U.S. a 3-0 lead. Derek DeBlois (East Greenwich, R.I./Cedar Rapids RoughRiders) extended Team USA's lead to 4-0 after Kevin Albers (Lake Orion, Mich./Green Bay Gamblers) sent a pass to Nic Dowd (Huntsville, Ala./Indiana Ice), who passed to DeBlois at the bottom of the left circle, where he buried the puck past the goaltender.

After holding Belarus scoreless for almost two periods, Kiryl Brykun made it a 4-1 game with :32 remaining in the middle frame.

The U.S. regained its four-goal lead with a marker from Beau Bennett (Gardena, Calif.) at 6:03 of the final stanza. Nick Mattson's (Chanhassen, Minn./Indiana Ice) shot from the blue line was tipped by Mike Parks (O'Fallon, Mo./Cedar Rapids RoughRiders) and knocked out of the air by Bennett past Artynski. Colten St. Clair (Gilbert, Ariz./Fargo Force) closed out the scoring with :23 remaining in the game when his shot off the rush from the right wing found the back of the net. Chris Crane (West Chester, Ohio/Green Bay Gamblers) collected an assist on the power-play tally.

U.S. netminder Eric Mihalik (Avon Lake, Ohio/Des Moines Buccaneers) turned aside 25 shots in the victory.