USA Announces Team Roster Men’s Ice Hockey for Harbin WU

USA Hockey announced the 22-player U.S. University Select Team roster, as well as six alternates, for the upcoming 2009 Winter Universiade in Harbin, China. Highlighting the U.S. roster for the biannual event are forwards Lukas DeLorenzo (Export, Pa./Penn State University) and Johnny Liang (Glenview, Ill./University of Illinois), defenseman Jon Biliouris (North Smithfield, R.I./University of Rhode Island) and goaltender Stephen Yu (Garden City, Mich./University of Michigan-Dearborn), all of whom were members of the U.S. University Select Team that competed at the 2007 Winter World University Games in Torino, Italy. The U.S. team, which was picked from an evaluation camp, is comprised of players from collegiate ice hockey teams affiliated with the American Collegiate Hockey Association.

“The talent at camp was fantastic so we had a difficult task in picking the team, but the input from the coaches on the selection committee was very useful and helped make the choices easier,” said Joe Augustine (North Scituate, R.I.), head coach of the U.S. University Select Team. “We have a talented team and the belief that we will do well, so there is a lot of anticipation for the games to start.” The U.S. line-up up front includes Jim Gehring (Chester Springs, Pa./West Chester University), the 2007-08 ACHA Men’s Division I Player of the Year, as well as Sean McWhorter (Kalamazoo, Mich./Western Michigan University), who led his team with 58 points (23-35) in 39 regular-season games a year ago.

Biliouris will be joined on the blue line by Brad Hoelzer (Batavia, Ill./University of Illinois), an ACHA Second Team All-American defenseman in 2007-08 and the MVP of the ACHA Men’s Divsion I All-Star Game. In goal, Yu will team with Paul Marshall (Orland Park, Ill./Ohio University), an ACHA Third Team All-American in 2007-08. Augustine is currently in his 20th season as head coach at the University of Rhode Island, where he has compiled a 390-170-33 record, 19 consecutive winning seasons and one ACHA National Championship (2006). He won back-to-back ACHA Men’s Division I Coach of the Year honors in 2004-05 and 2005-06, and was the Eastern Collegiate Hockey Association Coach of the Year in 2003-04. Augustine will be assisted by Scott Balboni (State College, Pa.), head coach at Penn State University, and David Debol (Saline, Mich.), head coach at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

NOTES

The 22-player roster features seven players from Illinois and five players from the University of Illinois … Augustine and Debol served as an assistant coaches for Team USA at the 2007 Winter World University Games in Torino, Italy … Anfu Wang (Ames, Iowa) will serve as the team’s equipment manager. He was born and raised in Harbin, China … Dr. Alan Murdoch (Ames, Iowa), who was previously named the team’s general manager, will make his fifth consecutive trip with Team USA to the Winter World University Games, while Ashley Bevan (Colorado Springs, Colo.), previously named team leader, will make his fourth consecutive appearance.