Derek Plante capped off his first international head coaching assignment by guiding the U.S. Under-18 Select Team to a third-place finish at the recent Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in Piestany, Slovakia. Plante, a University of Minnesota Duluth assistant coach, and his troops bested Sweden 5-4 in overtime last Friday to take third and go 2-1-2-0 (W-OTW-L-OTL) in the eight-team event.

"After an emotional loss in the semifinals (11-5 to eventual champion Canada) it was great for our guys to respond and beat a very good Swedish team to capture third place," said Plante, who was an All-American center with the Bulldogs during the early 1990s and has been on the UMD coaching staff since the 2010-11 season.

Team USA's Karch Bachman Novak reigned as the tournament's leading scorer with 11 points (five goals and six assists) over five games while teammate Brock Boeser topped all Cup participants in goals (six).