Saturday, April 24, 2010

USA repeats as World U18 champ



2010 recruits Adam Clendening and Matt Nieto concluded their NTDP careers with their second World U18 championships gold medals, as Team USA defeated Sweden, 3-1, to win this year’s title game in Belarus. Team USA outscored its opponents 33-7 in the seven games.

Clendening (photo) assisted on the third goal and finished the tournament with 10 points, tied for best on the team. He was the tournament’s top-scoring defensemen and had the best plus/minus, +7. Clendening was one of two U.S. players named to the all-tournament team and also was named one of Team USA’s three best players. Nieto had a 1-3-4 line in the tournament.

Both players had won gold medals at last year’s World U18s in Fargo, N.D. They join Colin Wilson, Vinny Saponari, Kevin Shattenkirk—all 2007—and Brian Strait, 2006, as Terriers who played on gold-medal teams at the World U18s. Clendening finished the season with a 13-32-45 line in 63 games. Nieto had 27-26-53 in 53 games

Looking back
Former Terrier All-American Mike Grier had a goal and earned third-star honors in Buffalo’s 4-1 playoff win over the Bruins. Commenting on his performance, NECN reported:


Mike Grier. The pride of Boston University and St. Sebastian’s has been one of Buffalo’s best players throughout the series, and he had another beauty of a game for Buffalo. Three shots on net, five hits, three blocked shots, a goal scored and a plus-1 during an eventful night. Grier was also drilled in the back of the head with a Dennis Wideman shot he stepped in front of in the third period, but returned later in the game after hitting the dressing room briefly.
Tough, intelligent, experienced and skilled enough to skill get the job done, Grier is one tough mammer jammer.

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