Five Invited to USA National Junior Evaluation Camp
6/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Ice Hockey
Colorado Springs, Colo. -- Five players from the University of Michigan ice hockey team's 2008-09 roster have been invited to USA Hockey's 2008 National Junior Evaluation Camp as announced Monday (June 16). Sophomores Aaron Palushaj(Northville, Mich.), Matt Rust(Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) and Scooter Vaughan(Placentia, Calif.) and freshmen Robbie Czarnik(Washington, Mich.) and David Wohlberg(South Lyon, Mich.) will join 48 other American-born players under the age of 20 in Lake Placid, N.Y., from Aug. 1-9 in an effort to make the 2009 U.S. World Junior Team. The 2009 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship will be held in Ottawa, Canada from Dec. 26, 2008 through Jan. 5, 2009.
Rust is the lone U.S. World Junior Team veteran among the quintet, earning fourth place with Team USA at the 2008 IIHF World Junior Championship in the Czech Republic. He played in all six WJC games but did not record a point. A graduate of the U.S. National Team Development Program in 2007, Rust was a member of USA's silver-medal winning squad at the 2007 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. Rust and Palushaj both participated in the 2007 National Junior Evaluation Camp.
Czarnik, Wohlberg and Vaughan are each first-time invitees to the USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp. Czarnik and Wohlberg have previous Team USA experience as each graduated from the U.S. NTDP earlier this spring. At the 2008 IIHF World Under-18 Championship, the duo earned a bronze medal with the U.S. squad.
The final 22-man rosters for Team USA will be selected between the end of the tryout camp and early December. The USA Hockey training camp includes 53 players (five goalies, 18 defensemen, 30 forwards) that will practice and scrimmage against each other. The team will also take on under-20 teams from Finland and Sweden.
Twenty-seven current or former Wolverines have skated for Team USA in the WJC, including at least one representative from U-M in each of the past 10 years. Rust, Max Pacioretty and Chris Summers were members of the U.S. roster at the 2008 WJC.
USA Hockey Release (6/16/08)
Contact: Matt Trevor (734) 763-4423
