BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Danny Weight scored with 4.5 seconds left in regulation to send Team USA (U17) past the Central Illinois Flying Aces on Friday night at Grossinger Motors Arena.
The Flying Aces (10-16-1-2, 23 points) scored four goals in the second period to take a 5-4 lead into the third period, but Team USA (13-9-0-1, 27 points) scored the final two goals of the game in the series opener.
Ryder Rolston jammed a rebound past Central Illinois goaltender Ryan Snowden (Ohio State University) with 8:45 gone in the third period to tie the game at five. Then Weight scored in the waning seconds on a net mouth scramble to secure the win for Team USA.
Down 3-1 after the first period, the Flying Aces knotted the score in a matter of 19 seconds in the first two minutes of the second period. Wojciech Stachowiak potted the first goal of the frame to pull Central Illinois within one, as he fired a rebound past Team USA goaltender Cameron Rowe just 1:42 into the frame. Then only a few moments later, Stachowiak started the play that tied the game at three. Stachowiak carried the puck down the left wing and found Jakub Lacka (RPI) at the back door all alone. Lacka tapped the feed past a defenseless Rowe to make it 3-3.
Central Illinois went on to grab two leads during the game, as Lucas Breault (Union College) and Max Andreev (Cornell University) both scored go-ahead goals in that four-goal second period. Breault gave the Flying Aces their first lead of the night at the 7:46 mark of the second period. His goal was Central Illinois’ fourth straight goal to make it 4-3. After the U17s tied the game at four, the Flying Aces surged back ahead only 46 seconds later on Max Andreev’s fifth goal of the season.
The Flying Aces will aim for the series split with Team USA on Saturday night. Saturday night is Youth Jersey Giveaway Night, as the first 500 kids 12 and younger will receive a Flying Aces jersey courtesy of Aloha Construction and Parkway Auto Laundry. Hot dogs are just $1 throughout the game, which is also the first Signature Saturday. The Flying Aces players will be signing autographs following the game in the Bud Light Lounge.
Known as the Bloomington Thunder from 2014-17, the newly-rebranded Central Illinois Flying Aces are a member of the top junior hockey league in the United States, the United States Hockey League (USHL). The only Tier I junior hockey league in the country, the USHL has become renowned for developing the next stars of both Division I college hockey and the NHL. At the start of the 2017-18 season, there were 128 active USHL alumni on NHL rosters, with at least one USHL alumnus playing for each of the 31 teams. In total, there have been 253 USHL players who have gone onto NHL careers, including Patrick Sharp, David Backes, Johnny Gaudreau, and Joe Pavelski, among others. The players in the USHL range in age from 16-20 years old, 95 percent of whom will go on to play college hockey at the Division I level. For more information, visit flyingaceshockey.com or ushl.com or download the USHL Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.
