Midwest well represented at Junior Showcase camp

Team USA has begun preparations for this December’s IIHF World Junior Tournament with an Evaluation Camp held in Lake Placid this week.

Exhibition matches involved head to head action with ‘White’ and ‘Blue’ USA teams to start and eventually Sweden and Finland — also in the midst of picking their own squads, provided the opposition.

After the fourth of eight days at the Camp, team management trimmed the roster to 32 players for the remainder of the event. The Midwest region was well represented with 14 players representing six of the region’s 12 states.

Of the 18 forwards remaining in camp, nine hail from the region including alphabetically: Paul Bittner (Crookstown, MN); Anders Bjork (Mequon, WI); Brock Boeser (Burnsville, MN); Kyle Connor (Shelby Twp., MI); Christian Dvorak (Frankfurt, IL); Dylan Larkin (Waterford, MI); Jack Roslovic (Columbus, OH); Nick Schmaltz (Madison, WI) and Matthew Tkachuk (St. Louis, MO).

There are nine defense on the roster, three of them hailing from the Midwest including Louie Belpedio from Skokie, IL; Ryan Collins from Bloomington, MN and Zach Werenski, a native of Grosse Pointe, MI.

Brandon Halvorson from Traverse City, MI and Luke Opilka from St. Louis are still in camp as goaltenders along with two others.