DAWSON CREEK, B.C. – Declan Farmer (Tampa, Fla.) tallied a hat trick and Jack Wallace (Franklin Lakes, N.J.) recorded two assists to help lift the U.S. National Sled Team to a 3-1 victory over Czechia in its first preliminary round contest of the 2025 Para Hockey Cup here tonight at Ovintiv Events Centre.
“We started sluggish, but I think we got better every period and we started to play really well at the end,” said David Hoff (Bottineau, N.D.), head coach of the U.S. National Sled Team. “We’ll take it, learn from it, and move on ,and hopefully we are a little better tomorrow.”
Just 12 seconds into the contest, Czechia’s Zdenek Habl scored on a wrist shot from the left circle to put the U.S. down by one.
Team USA leveled the score with 5:30 remaining in the opening frame on a power-play goal. Wallace slid the puck across the slot to Farmer who beat Czechia netminder Patrik Sedlacek with a deke and buried the shot to make it a 1-1 game. Noah Grove (Frederick, Md.) also tallied an assist on the play.
At the 4:37 mark of the middle frame, Farmer skated past a pair of Czechia defenders to create a breakaway opportunity off a feed from Wallace and capitalized with a wrist shot into the top left corner from just outside the crease to add the go-ahead tally.
Farmer completed a hat trick 1:29 into the final stanza, giving the U.S. a 3-1 lead with helpers from Evan Nichols (Haymarket, Va.) and Kayden Beasley (Coats, N.C.) on what proved to be the final goal of the contest.
Jen Lee (Daly City, Calif.) stopped seven shots to earn the win in goal for Team USA.
The U.S. will take on China in its second preliminary-round contest tomorrow (Nov. 30) at 7 p.m. local time/9 p.m. ET. For more information, including a full U.S. schedule and streaming details, click here.
NOTES: Declan Farmer was named U.S. Player of the Game. Team USA outshot Czechia 34-8. The U.S. was 1-2 on the power play, while Czechia did not have a power play.