Fourteen current college players and at least 18 college recruits make up the majority of the invited roster for the 1998 USA Hockey Summer Challenge, an under-20 tournament which will be held August 7-15 at Lake Placid, N.Y.
The U.S. roster of 55 will be divided into East and West teams and compete against national under-20 teams from Sweden, Switzerland and 1998 IIHF World Junior champion Finland at the round-robin tournament, won last year by Team USA West.
Collegians named to the team include forwards Dan Carlson of Notre Dame, Carl Corazzini of Boston University, Brian Gionta of Boston College, Alex Kim of Miami, Geoff Koch of Michigan, Dustin Kuk of Wisconsin, Justin Morrison of Colorado College, Ryan Murphy of Bowling Green, Mike Vigilante of Lake Superior and Erik Westrum of Minnesota; defensemen Aaron Dwyer of St. Cloud and Jay Leach of Providence; and goaltenders Joe Blackburn of Michigan State and Shawn Timm of Bowling Green.
Confirmed 1998-99 college recruits invited to the Challenge include forwards Tyler Arnason of St. Cloud, Joe Goodenow and Adam Hall of Michigan State, Barrett Heisten of Maine, Willie Levesque of Northeastern, Doug Meyer of Minnesota and Mike Pandolfo of Boston University; defensemen Pat Aufiero and Chris Dyment of Boston University, Bill Cass and Brooks Orpik of Boston College, Andrew Hutchinson of Michigan State, Doug Janik of Maine, Jordan Leopold of Minnesota, Will Magnuson of Lake Superior, Mike Stuart of Colorado College and Dave Tanabe of Wisconsin; and goaltender Adam Hauser of Minnesota. Most of these players were members of the inaugural U.S. under-18 team, which recently finished its playing season out of Ann Arbor, Mich.
In addition to the players named above, the roster includes nine members of the 1998 U.S. National Junior Team, 11 players from the Ontario Hockey League, three from the Western Hockey League and one from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
“We have a good mix of veterans and young players on the roster,” said U.S. National Coach Jeff Jackson. “From an evaluation standpoint, the format of the tournament is excellent. We’ll be able to see how the players perform individually and as a team against top-notch international competition.”
