The U.S. Under-17 hockey team stands for the national anthem after its Five Nations Tournament title-clinching win over Slovakia Friday night at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

Courtesy bigmanwithacamera.com

Daniel Vanderwiel scored three goals to lead the U.S. Under-17 Select Team to a 6-4 win over Slovakia and a team title at the Five Nations Tournament being played at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

With Friday night's win, Team USA (3-0) clinched first place with one game left to play in the round-robin event.

"It feels great to clinch the tournament title," said Team USA coach Bob Corkum. "But we still have unfinished business (Saturday) against Switzerland, as one of our goals here was to go undefeated."

Vanderwiel, an Island Lake, Ill., native, opened the scoring seven minutes into the game.

After Slovakia took a brief 2-1 lead one minute into the second period, Team USA rattled off three straight goals off the sticks of Vanderwiel, Vinni Lettieri (Excelsior, Minn.) and Shane Eiserman (West Newbury, Mass.) to claim a two-goal advantage midway through the second.

A pair of goals by Slovakia's Andrej Listiak temporarily tied the game at 4-4, but the U.S. regained its two-goal lead in the third period after goals by Michael Brodzinski (Ham Lake, Minn.) and Vanderwiel.

U.S. goalie Devin Williams (Saginaw), who replaced starter Thatcher Demko (San Diego, Calif.) at the start of the third, denied Slovakia's comeback bid by stopping all 11 shots he faced in the game's final 20 minutes.

The U.S. will play Switzerland at 7 p.m. Saturday.