USA Hockey Names 15 Players To 2003 U.S. Men's National Team Preliminary Roster
April 11, 2003
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - USA Hockey today named 15 players to a preliminary roster for the 2003 United States Men's National Team, which will compete at the 2003 International Ice Hockey Federation Men's World Championship, to be held April 26-May 11 in Helsinki, Tampere and Turku, Finland. The remaining eight members will be named later this month to fill-out the 23-player roster.
The announcement was made by 2003 U.S. Men's National Team Co-General Managers Jay Feaster (Valrico, Fla.) and Larry Pleau (St. Louis, Mo.), Director of Player Personnel Art Berglund (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey President Walter L. Bush, Jr. (Edina, Minn.), USA Hockey Vice President and International Council Chairperson Ron DeGregorio (Salem, N.H.) and USA Hockey Executive Director Doug Palazzari (Colorado Springs, Colo.).
Eight forwards, all of whom have National Hockey League experience, were selected to the preliminary roster. Five forwards competed in the NHL this season: Matt Cullen (Virginia, Minn./Florida Panthers), Brad DeFauw (Edina, Minn./Carolina Hurricanes), Nicholas Dimitrakos (Sommerville, Mass./San Jose Sharks), Adam Hall (Kalamazoo, Mich./Nashville Predators), and Craig Johnson (St. Paul, Minn./Los Angeles Kings). The remaining three forwards are Ted Drury (Boston, Mass./Hamburg Freezers) and Kelly Fairchild (Hibbing, Minn./Eisbaren Berlin) from the German Hockey League, and Kevin Miller (Lansing, Mich./Davos) from the Swiss National League.
Five defensemen were also named to the preliminary roster, three of which competed in the NHL this season. They include Francis Bouillon (New York, N.Y./Montreal Canadiens), Jim Fahey (Boston, Mass./San Jose Sharks), and Jordan Leopold (Golden Valley, Minn./Calgary Flames). Rounding out the defensemen selected to the preliminary roster are John Gruden (Virginia, Minn./Eisbaren Berlin), and Brett Hauer (Edina, Minn./Geneva-Servette), both of whom have previous NHL experience.
Two goaltenders were also named to the preliminary roster: Damian Rhodes (St. Paul, Minn./Greenville Grrrowl), a nine-year NHL veteran; and Chris Rogles (St. Louis, Mo./Cologne Sharks) of the German Hockey League.
Eight of the 15 players have represented the United States in prior IIHF World Championship competition, including Leopold, who helped the 2002 U.S. Men's National Team to a 3-3-1 record at the 2002 IIHF World Championship in Sweden. Rhodes was the top goaltender for the 2000 U.S. Men's National Team, leading the squad to a 4-1-2 record and a fifth-place finish at the 2000 IIHF World Championship in St. Petersburg, Russia. Cullen, Johnson and Rogles were teammates on the 1999 U.S. Men's National Team at the 1999 IIHF World Championship in Norway, while Cullen and Drury played together in the 1998 IIHF World Championship in Switzerland. Three players -- Drury, Hauer and Johnson -- were teammates on the 1994 U.S. Olympic Men's Ice Hockey Team that competed in Lillehammer, Norway, while Drury also competed in the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, as Team USA placed fourth.
Hall makes his first appearance on a U.S. Men's National Team, although he competed in two IIHF World Junior Championships. Six players -- Drury, Fairchild, Gruden, Hauer, Miller and Rogles -- were teammates on the 2002 U.S. National Selects at the 2002 Deutschland Cup in Hannover, Germany. The remainder of the preliminary roster -- Bouillon, DeFauw, Dimitrakos and Fahey -- are making their first appearances for USA Hockey.
The team will be led by Lou Vairo (Colorado Springs, Colo.), who will serve as head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team for the fourth consecutive year. Vairo will be joined on the coaching staff by former New York Rangers' Head Coach Bryan Trottier (Thornwood, N.Y.) and New Jersey Devils' scout Jay Leach (Snellville, Ga.).
Team USA competes in Group B of the 2003 IIHF Men's World Championship alongside Russia, Switzerland and Denmark in Tampere, Finland. The U.S. begins the tournament playing each team in its Group in a round-robin format. Following the Preliminary Round, teams are re-seeded within their Groups according to points (two points for a win, one point for a tie and zero points for a loss).
The top-three teams in each Group advance to the Qualification Round to play in three cross-over games against the opposite Group in its bracket (for example, if the U.S. advanced it would play against the top-three teams in Group A). Teams carry points into the Qualification Round based on competition against teams that also advance.
Following this round, the top-four point leaders in each of the two brackets (Groups A & B and Groups C & D) will advance to the single-elimination Quarterfinal Round on May 7. Teams are re-seeded to determine match-ups. New points acquired in the Qualification Round only carry-over if they come against teams advancing to the Quarterfinal Round. The four winning teams in the Quarterfinal Round advance to the Semifinal Round on May 9 and the Medal Round from May 10-11.
Denke das USA Team wird mit dem Kader nicht übers Viertelfinale hinaus kommen. Da Müssten jetzt schon noch einige hochklassige Spieler kommen.
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