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Mittelstadt, Team USA Ready For Belarus

Exhibition Game Set For Wednesday Evening At Northwest Arena

The Buffalo Sabres hope 18-year-old Casey Mittelstadt is a big part of their future once he leaves the University of Minnesota.

Sabres’ fans will likely have a chance to see the 2017 first-round pick in action Wednesday night at Northwest Arena when the U.S. National Junior team takes on Belarus at 7 p.m. in an International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship pre-tournament game.

Twenty-eight players, including seven members of the gold medal-winning 2017 U.S. National Junior Team, were named to the preliminary roster for the U.S. team earlier this month in advance of the tournament that will take place in Buffalo beginning Tuesday, Dec. 26 and running through Friday, Jan. 5.

“This is an accomplished, versatile group of players that has experience winning across all levels of hockey and intends to do so this year on home ice,” said Jim Johannson, USA Hockey’s assistant executive director of hockey operations and the general manager of the team. “There is a specific style of play Coach Motzko (U.S. head coach Bob Motzko) and his staff intend to utilize, and while there are still some difficult decisions to make, our staff is excited to begin identifying a roster that can ultimately win a gold medal in Buffalo.”

The players attended a training camp, which is wrapping up today, at Nationwide Arena and OhioHealth Ice Haus in Columbus, Ohio, followed by an additional camp in Jamestown beginning Wednesday and running through Saturday. After Wednesday evening’s game in Jamestown, the U.S. will play Sweden at the Erie Insurance Arena on Friday at 7 p.m.

Seven camp invitees were members of the 2017 U.S. team that earned the gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal and Toronto, Canada, including forwards Joey Anderson (Roseville, Minn./University of Minnesota Duluth), Kieffer Bellows (Edina, Minn./Portland Winterhawks), Patrick Harper (New Canaan, Conn./Boston University); defensemen Adam Fox (Jericho/Harvard University) and Ryan Lindgren (Minneapolis, Minn./University of Minnesota); and goaltenders Jake Oettinger (Lakeville, Minn./Boston University) and Joseph Woll (St. Louis, Mo./Boston College).

Additionally, 16 invitees have won medals as members of Team USA at the IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship. Last season, Brady Tkachuk (St. Louis, Mo./Boston University), Quinn Hughes (Orlando, Fla./University of Michigan), Phil Kemp (Greenwich, Conn./Yale University), Josh Norris (Oxford, Mich./University of Michigan) and Ryan Poehling (Lakeville, Minn./St. Cloud State University) helped Team USA win a gold medal at the 2017 event in Poprad and Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia, while Anderson, Bellows, Logan Brown (St. Louis, Mo./Windsor Spitfires), Trent Frederic (St. Louis, Mo./University of Wisconsin), Fox, Lindgren, Mittelstadt (Eden Prairie, Minn./University of Minnesota), Will Lockwood (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./University of Michigan), Oettinger, Woll, and Kailer Yamamoto (Spokane, Wash./Spokane Chiefs) helped Team USA win bronze on home ice at the 2016 event in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Additionally, Oettinger was a member of the 2015 squad that won gold in Zug and Lucerne, Switzerland.

NOTES: The final 23-man roster is expected to be named by Saturday. … A total of 26 players named to the preliminary roster have ties to the United States Hockey League, including 13 players who were members of USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Michigan. … Team USA has medaled in five of the last eight IIHF World Junior Championships, winning gold in 2010, 2013 and 2017, plus bronze in 2011 and 2016. No other nation has won three gold medals in that span. … The United States is seeking back-to-back medal finishes in tournament play for the second time ever (2010 — gold, 2011 — bronze) … Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.) is serving as the general manager of the U.S. National Junior Team for the ninth consecutive year … Motzko (St. Cloud, Minn.), who guided Team USA to its fourth-ever gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship in Montreal and Toronto, Canada, is joined behind the bench by assistant coaches Greg Brown (Scituate, Mass.), Grant Potulny (Minneapolis, Minn.), Kris Mayotte (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Steve Miller (Littleton, Colo.), all of whom were part of his gold medal-winning staff a year ago. … NHL Network is the official U.S. broadcaster of the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, which will include the first ever outdoor game in tournament play when the United States takes on Canada at New Era Field on Dec. 29. … Team USA will play its preliminary-round games against Denmark, Slovakia, Canada and Finland. Quarterfinals will be split between the KeyBank Center and HarborCenter. The semifinal and medal games will be played at the KeyBank Center.

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