Jan. 5, 2010
Saskatoon, Sask. – Notre Dame freshman forward Kyle Palmieri (Montvale, N.J.) and the United States World Junior Hockey team will play for the gold medal tonight versus Canada at the World Junior Championships with the opening face off set for 8:00 p.m. (EST) from Credit Union Centre. The game will be televised live on the NHL Network.
For the United States team, this is their third appearance in the gold medal game at the IIHF World Junior Championships where they are 1-1, winning the gold medal versus Canada in 2004. The U.S. advanced to the title game on Sunday night with a 5-2 win over Sweden in one semifinal while Canada advanced with a 6-1 win over Switzerland.
In Sunday’s semifinal game, Palmieri helped get the U.S. offense started when he set up linemate Tyler Johnson’s goal just 1:24 into the game. In the first six games of the tournament, Palmieri has one goal and seven assists for eight points to rank third on the team in scoring while his +8 is tied for second among all players on the U.S. squad. The 5-11, 195-pound right wing picked up four assists in the team’s 12-1 win over Latvia on Dec. 29.
The United States comes into the championship game with a 5-1-0 record after going 3-1 in the preliminary round with the lone loss coming against Canada, 5-4, in a shootout on Dec. 31. The squad then defeated Finland, 6-2, in the quarterfinals on Jan. 2, before knocking off Sweden on Sunday night.
With the Irish, Palmieri has played in 19 games, scoring five goals with two assists for seven points with a pair of power-play goals. His 46 shots tie him for fourth on the team and his five goals rank him third on the squad.
The Irish are currently 9-8-5 overall and 5-5-4-2 in the CCHA and are coming off winning the 2010 Shillelagh Tournament last weekend in Hoffman Estates, Ill., with a 5-2 win over Colgate and a 3-3 overtime tie with sixth-ranked North Dakota. Notre Dame won the tournament by winning the shootout, 2-1, in five rounds.
The Irish will return to action this weekend, Jan. 9-10 when they play host to No. 11/No. 12 Ferris State at the Joyce Center. Saturday’s game has a 7:05 p.m. start time while Sunday’s contest will start at 4:05 p.m.