FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12/19/2022
CONTACT: Jon Lundin, Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games Head of Communications & Media ([email protected]) Tel: 518-637-6885
Purchase tickets HERE for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games men’s ice hockey tournament
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — The U.S. World University Games men’s ice hockey team will compete on home ice for the first time in more than a half-century at the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games in January.
In another first, the No. 6-seeded U.S. team will be composed entirely of NCAA Div. III players. While the roster of 23 players plucked from their collegiate teams will be in mid-season form, they will have only a few weeks to gel before the U.S. opens play against 10th-seed Great Britain on Jan. 11 at Clarkson University’s Cheel Arena in Potsdam, the day before the opening ceremony for the Games, set of Jan. 12-22.
The Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games, an 11-day competition and educational festival, will feature 1,443 collegiate-athletes, ages 17-25, from more than 540 universities across 43 countries. The competition consists of 12 winter sports contested throughout northern New York, including Lake Placid, Saranac Lake, Wilmington, North Creek, Canton and Potsdam.
The U.S. team is almost equally split – 12 players are from eastern universities and colleges and 11 are from western universities. Defending NCAA Div. III champion Adrian College (Mich.) has three players on the roster. Head Coach Mark Taylor, of Hobart College, leads a U.S. staff that includes Lake Placid native Bill Beaney, a former longtime Middlebury College coach and the team’s general manager.
“This was a really difficult process for the staff,” Taylor said to uscho.com. “We like the balance of the group and know there were enough players interested that we could have made up two rosters. We think we have a very good group including some players in reserve that may be included [depending on injury or illness] prior to our final roster submission on January 10.”
The men’s ice hockey competition features 12 teams. Besides Cheel, the men’s preliminary games will also be played at Roos House on the SUNY Canton campus.
The top four teams in the tournament will advance to play in Lake Placid’s newly renovated 1980 Herb Brooks Arena at the famed Olympic Center, site of the “Miracle on Ice.” The FISU Games men’s semifinals are Jan. 21, and the Jan. 22 gold medal game will be broadcast live on ESPN.
Similar to an Olympic Athletes’ Village, all 300-plus ice hockey athletes will be housed in SUNY Potsdam’s Knowles Hall, with living quarters and a dining hall close to where the preliminary rounds will be played.
The U.S. plays in the six-team Pool B bracket. Besides Great Britain, teams include No. 2 Kazakhstan, No. 3 Slovakia, No. 7 Hungary, and No. 11 Korea.
Pool A consists of top-seed Canada, No. 4 Czech Republic, No. 5 Latvia, No. 8 Sweden, No. 9 Japan, and No. 12 Ukraine.
The U.S. is seeking its first FISU Games medal since 1972, when the U.S. didn’t win a game but won bronze in a field of just three teams that included the Soviet Union and Canada. That was the last time the FISU Winter Games were contested on American soil, also in Lake Placid. The U.S.’s best finish since then was fourth in both 1989 and 2013. Lake Placid 2023 is the first time the winter edition of the FISU Games has been held since the 2019 Games in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. The 2021 FISU Games, set for Switzerland, were cancelled due to the worldwide pandemic.
LAKE PLACID 2023 FISU WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES U.S. MEN’S HOCKEY ROSTER
Goaltenders:
Dysen Skinner — Wisconsin – River Falls
Evan Ruschil — Williams College
Ryan Kenny — Stevenson University
Defense:
Alex Sheehy — University of New England
Jack Ring — SUNY – Plattsburgh
Jaden Shields — Adrian College
Mason Palmer — Augsburg University
Cooper Swift — Hobart College
Emmet Powell — Wesleyan University
Brendan Mark — St. Norbert College
Forwards:
Jack Jaunich — Aurora University
Samuel Ruffin — Adrian College
Michael McChesney — St. Norbert College
Connor Szmul — Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Matt Hanewall — Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)
Quinn Green — Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Zachary Heintz — Adrian College
Peter Morgan — SUNY – Geneseo
Luke Aquaro — Hobart College
Clark Kerner — Norwich University
Mitch Walinski — Salve Regina University
Jonny Mulera — Salve Regina University
Austin Master — Stevenson University
Team USA Staff
Mark Taylor — Head Coach — Hobart College
Matt Loen — Associate Head Coach — Wisconsin – Eau Claire
Mike Szkodzinski — Assistant & Goaltender Coach — Lawrence University
Jack Ceglarski — Assistant Coach — Middlebury College
Bill Beaney — General Manager — Middlebury College
Peter Lynch — Assistant General Manager — SUNY – Oswego
Joel Stoneham — Hockey Operations — Hobart College
Fans can follow the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter with @LakePlacid2023, @SaveWinterHQ, #lakeplacid2023, #savewinter.
For more information about the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games or to purchase tickets, visit www.lakeplacid2023.com.
PHOTO COURTESY: FISU
MEDIA ADVISORY: Application requests for working media accreditation for the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games has been extended through December 30, 2022. To apply for media accreditation, click HERE. To download the Lake Placid 2023 FISU World University Games’ media guide click HERE, the Lake Placid 2023 FISU Games’ media services guide is available HERE.
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