International and All-Star Tournament Updates

There are several international/all-star competitions that are either ongoing or have recently wrapped up. Here's a quick rundown of those events:

• Yesterday afternoon Team USA again ran into some hot goaltending at the World Junior Championship and moved to 1-2-0 for the tournament after getting dropped by the Czech Republic 5-2. UND sophomore defenseman Derek Forbort was injured after being checked into the boards by a Czech player and was unable to return to action after heading to the locker room. Opportunistic opponents, average goaltending, lack of offensive execution, and stellar play by opposing netminders have all spelled doom for what America thought might be another golden WJC experience. Tonight's matchup with Canada was supposed to be the biggest preliminary round game of the event but instead the Americans will be playing for pride as they are headed for next week's relegation round. Forbort will not dress for tonight's game against Canada, which is set to begin at 7:00 PM CST.
• Robbie Bina's EHC Wolfsburg squad was eliminated from the Spengler Cup yesterday after losing to to Dinamo Riga 4-1 in the tournament semifinals. The host team, HC Davos, claimed the tournament championship earlier today by defeating Dinamo Riga 3-2. 
• Team USA dropped a narrow 3-2 decision to Russia yesterday in preliminary round play at the 2012 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Windsor, Ontario. Team USA, whose record is now 1-1-0, has today off before returning to action tomorrow at 6:00 CST against Canada West. Keaton Thompson has one assist and Luke Voltin is pointless thru the first two games, and if you care to watch these Sioux recruits and their Team USA teammates, all tournament games are being streamed live at Fast Hockey. You need to register in order to log-in, but the games cost nothing to watch.
• Recruit Drake Caggiula and the OJHL North All-Stars came up just short in the Central Canada Cup Challenge. The Quebec League All-Stars won the tournament with Thursday night's 5-1 victory over OJHL North, with Caggiula notching his team's only goal. For the tournament Caggiula had three points (2G, 1A) in five games and converted both of his shootout attempts, including the semifinal game winner. In OJHL regular season play, he entered the holiday break on a five game point streak that saw him put up nine points (4G, 5A) in helping the Stouffville Spirit to a 4-0-1 record.
• On the women's side, two Sioux recruits are taking part in the 2012 Women's Under-18 Championship. Samantha LaShomb is representing Team USA, which opened their tournament with an 8-0 victory over Russia this morning, while Meghan Dufault and Team Canada hammered Switzerland 13-1. Team USA has won three of the last four gold medals in this event, and the Americans and Canadians have met for the gold all four years. Team USA and Canada each resume play tomorrow at Noon CST, with the US taking on Sweden and Canada facing Germany.