MANKATO, Minn. -- Minnesota State University freshman forward Zach Stepan returns to Verizon Wireless Arena on Tuesday as a member of the United States National Junior Team select camp roster.

Stepan, who had two goals and five points in his past five games for the Mavericks prior to joining the U.S. select camp last week, is looking forward to the matchup. Minnesota State (11-7-0 overall, 9-3-0 WCHA) has won its past seven games.

Stepan will center Ryan Fitzgerald and Thomas DiPauli to open the game.

MINNEAPOLIS -- For those players on the bubble with visions of earning a roster spot on the United States National Junior Team that will travel to Sweden for the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship, the first major test is Tuesday in an exhibition game against Minnesota State University at Verizon Wireless Arena in Mankato (8:37 p.m. ET).

U.S. coach Don Lucia will lead his charges against the Mavericks before making three cuts to pare his roster to 26 players, including 15 forwards, eight defensemen and three goalies. The coach will conduct one more practice at Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota on Wednesday morning before he and his team depart for Angelholm, Sweden, to continue the evaluation Thursday.

The United States will have exhibition games against Sweden on Dec. 20 and Finland on Dec. 22 before announcing the official 23-player roster headed to Malmo for the WJC that begins Dec. 26.

"We have to make some cuts before we head to Sweden [on Wednesday afternoon] to continue camp," Lucia said. "Against Minnesota State, we have to start forging that identity of our team."

MINNEAPOLIS -- Long before the big game on Tuesday, United States National Junior Team hopeful J.T. Compher will have already taken a big test.

Compher, one of 29 players at selection camp this week on the campus of the University of Minnesota, is scheduled to take his calculus exam at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning. His team will practice at 10 a.m. before traveling to Mankato for an exhibition game against Minnesota State University.

Compher is a freshman at the University of Michigan, but will take the exam on the Minnesota campus.

MINNEAPOLIS -- As the United States gathers this week at Mariucci Arena for its World Junior Championships Selection Camp, it will bring together players from all backgrounds and locations from around the country.

It will also bring together longtime friends on the bench, where head coach Don Lucia and assistant coach Bob Motzko will be on the same staff for the first time since 2005. Motzko worked under Lucia at the University of Minnesota for four seasons and the two captured national championships in 2002 and 2003. The 2002 title was Minnesota's first since the Herb Brooks-led 1979 team.

"It's good to be back, working around Don again," Motzko said. "It must mean he liked me when we worked together if he wanted me to come back with him.

"It was a big thing for Don and his career to coach this team, we call it a 'Bucket List' thing. For him to ask me, I was honored and I feel very privileged to do it."

MINNEAPOLIS -- Without players like Johnny Gaudreau, Alex Galchenyuk and J.T. Miller leading the way offensively for the United States at the IIHF World Junior Championships this year, it will be up to a number of players to help pick up the scoring slack if the U.S. is going to repeat as champions for the first time.

Top-end offensive talent is not expected to be a hallmark of this year' team, but there are players at this week's U.S. selection camp with a scoring pedigree.

One such player is forward Henrik Samuelsson, a 2012 first round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes and current Edmonton Oil King of the Western Hockey League. With 29 players currently on the preliminary roster, a number expected to decrease by as many as five or six players after an exhibition game Tuesday at Minnesota State, Samuelsson said he needs to show U.S. coach Don Lucia and general manager Jim Johannson that he can be counted on to help lead the way offensively.

"I can score goals, I can make plays and my defensive game has gotten a lot better," Samuelsson said. "I can score big goals too."

MINNEAPOLIS -- United States National Junior Team coach Don Lucia was right back at it on Monday morning in the first of two practice sessions at Mariucci Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

A second practice will be held Monday at 6 p.m. ET.

Lucia continued to shuffle his defensive combinations and made one notable shift among the forward lines, placing Jack Eichel (U.S. U-18 National Team Development Program) between Adam Erne (Quebec Remparts, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) and Ryan Hartman (Plymouth Whalers, Ontario Hockey League). Eichel was with Erne and Riley Barber (Miami University) on Sunday night.

MINNEAPOLIS -- There could come a time in the future of forward Adam Erne where he finds himself trading passes with Jonathan Drouin as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Both were chosen by Tampa Bay at the 2013 NHL Draft -- Drouin of the Halifax Mooseheads was selected in the first round (No. 3) and Erne of the Quebec Remparts in the second (No. 33). They also were roommates in Tampa Bay during development camp prior to the season.

Until that time arrives, however, they play for different teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and likely will oppose each other at the 2014 IIHF World Junior Championship in Sweden.

Erne is taking part in the United States National Junior Team selection camp this week on the campus of the University of Minnesota while Drouin is at Canada's selection camp.

Drouin's participation at the WJC is dependent on his health as he is still recovering from a concussion he sustained after taking a hit from Erne while in a vulnerable position along the boards in the first period of a regular-season game earlier this month.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Zach Stepan, who is at the United States National Junior Team selection camp this week, is fully healthy for the camp that got underway Sunday evening at Mariucci Arena.

Stepan, a freshman at Minnesota State University, was injured in Game 2 of a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series Saturday against the University of Alabama-Huntsville in Huntsville, Ala.

With the Mavericks leading 2-1 late in the third period, Stepan was hit high and from behind into the boards behind the UAH net. Stepan lay on the ice for several moments before being brought back to the locker room.

Stepan did not return to the bench over the final minutes, a move he said was precautionary.

"I'm fine," Stepan said. "They just wanted to make sure everything was intact, and it was, so we're good to go."

MINNEAPOLIS -- The players and coaches participating in the United States National Junior Team selection camp at Mariucci Arena are certainly doing so with heavy hearts this week on the campus of the University of Minnesota.

That's because for the first time in six years, the late Tim Taylor will not play a part of the selection process as the U.S. director of player personnel. Taylor, who succumbed to cancer in April, was an integral part of the country earning medals in three of the past four tournaments, including gold in 2010 in Saskatchewan and 2013 in Russia.

"The one thing we are going to miss this year is the presence and knowledge that Tim Taylor provided us," 2014 U.S. National Junior Team coach Don Lucia told NHL.com. "I was in Lake Placid on two different occasions [during U.S. orientation camp], and the one thing Tim had was an encyclopedic knowledge of every player. He had the book on every guy."