The United States finished its National Junior Evaluation Camp with a 3-0 victory against the Czech Republic on Saturday. It was the third win in a row for the United States, which beat Sweden 7-1 on Wednesday and routed Finland 9-1 on Thursday.
"I think we made huge strides during the course of the week," defenseman Steven Santini (New Jersey Devils) told USA Hockey. "We only gave up two goals in the last three games. We came together as a team and really played well in our own zone."
Tyler Motte, a Chicago Blackhawks prospect who combined with Jack Eichel and Alex Tuch (Minnesota Wild) for five goals and 12 points in the win against Finland, opened the scoring against the Czechs 10:51 into the game by converting a diagonal feed from Ryan Collins (Columbus Blue Jackets).
Eichel, a potential top-two pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, had eight points in those two games but did not play against the Czechs.
Chase De Leo (Winnipeg Jets) fired a rebound past goaltender Miroslav Svoboda during a delayed penalty at 5:14 of the third period to make it 2-0, and John Hayden (Blackhawks) capped the scoring with a power-play goal with 1:54 remaining.
Thatcher Demko (Vancouver Canucks) stopped all nine shots he faced in the first period; Brendan Burke (Arizona Coyotes) turned aside the six shots he faced while playing the final 40 minutes. Svoboda stopped 31 shots for the Czechs, who took part in a development camp run by Hockey Canada and had travel problems from Montreal that forced the game to be pushed back from 1 p.m. ET to 5:30 p.m.
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