Goaltender Jeremy Smith represented the United States at the 2006 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament in the Czech Republic. The tournament used to be called the Junior World Cup, but was changed to honor the former Czech coach and player who passed away in August of 2004.

The Under-18 U.S. Select Team was selected from players that attended the 2006 USA Hockey Select 17 Player Development Camp. The camp was held July 8-14, at St. Cloud State University, and featured many of America¹s best hockey players born in 1989. At that camp, Smith played for Team Grey and actually split time in net with Whalers rookie Kyle Jendra. Smith finished the tournament as the top goaltender, having played 5 games with a .966 save percentage (84 saves on 87 shots) and a 1.21 goals against average. Jeremy's journal talks about the experience of trying to make the USA U-18 team and the opportunity to represent the USA in the Czech Republic.

July, 2006...

“Our Select 17 grey team was a lot of fun, and the guys were great. We lost our first 3 games. The coaches at the camp wanted to make some trades to make our team stronger and even things out, but nobody on our team wanted that. We had a good group of guys and wanted to stick together. We ended up winning the final 2 games at camp and showed we could do it.

A few days later Mr. Ed Olczyk, the USA coach for the U-18 team heading to the Czech Republic, gave me a call. He told me I had a good camp and asked me if I would like to go over seas and be the team’s starting goalie. I told him that I would be honored. He said he’d see me August 2nd and we’d keep in touch until then. This was the first time I was going to play internationally for my country."

August 2nd and 3rd, 2006...

"We left for the Czech Republic August 2nd, but flew to Washington, D.C. first. We stayed in D.C. for a night and took care of all of our equipment issues. After that we flew to Munich, Germany then to Vienna, Austria and then bussed to Breclav in the Czech Republic on August 3rd. It was 16 hours until we arrived at the Czech Republic rink, and then to our hotel. The flights over were great though. We had monitors in the head rests in front of us and could switch between five different movies. Then whenever we decided we wanted to sleep, we could just put on XM radio. If that wasn’t enough, when you needed a change, you could check out this 3D version of an in-flight map. It would tell you the wind speed, how far you had traveled, and how much farther we had to go. The flight was a comfortable ride, even though it was nearly 8 hours. Once we got to the Czech Republic it was hard at first because no one spoke in English. They would laugh when you would ask for information in English."

August 4th, 2006...

"August 4th was our first practice, but Dayn Belfour (the other goalie), and I could only do off-ice training. Team USA had shipped our equipment separately instead of having it fly over with us, and it hadn’t arrived yet. I wasn’t too worried, but I just wanted to get all my gear and practice in it before the first game. Thankfully, the next day it arrived and we were able to have two practices before our exhibition game. They were fast paced practices and it was good since my legs were shot from all the flying.

I had only played with 2 of the guys on the team before. I played with Matt Tomassoni at the Junior Chowder Cup, a Select Prospect Tournament in Boston. Besides him, I had played with David Carle, my roommate at Select 17s. We were the only ones that made it from our select Team Grey. I guess you could say that the camp didn’t have high expectations for Team Grey. Carle was a good guy to room with though. He’s really easy going, quiet, and laid back. It was a good time and a great roommate."

August 6th, 2006...

"We had one exhibition game before the tournament began. On August 6th, we bussed 2 hours to Piestany, Slovakia to play the Slovakian team. I was nervous to get on the ice and tried to get in the flow of the game. After we scored the first goal of the game, our team seemed to relax a lot and just started playing instead of worrying about everything. We ended up winning 2-0 and Belfour and I shared the shutout."

August 7th, 2006...

"We had a day off after the exhibition game and a lot of the guys went to the mall just to hang out and relax. Later on in the hotel, we found the movie ‘Tommy Boy’ on the TV. That probably was the highlight of my day since I could finally watch something in English. It had been almost a week that we found any other language on television besides the Czech language.

The rink in the Czech Republic had old wooden seats that you had to fold down, almost like folding chairs, but they were on these huge planks of wood. They weren’t very comfortable. They were nearly 6 to 8 feet from the boards until the first row of seats, and then the stands just went straight up to the top of the ceiling. It was almost like the rink in Erie, except the Czech Republic rink had a higher seating capacity. Also, it had 2 long windows, on the both sides, that caused problems during the game. If we played a 3 o’clock game, the sun would shine in through the windows, reflect off the ice, and into our eyes so it was difficult to see. There were also holes in the roof. When it rained, the water would rain down on the ice, and would make holes in my crease where the water kept dripping. The water would splash off the back of my neck, or even the top of my helmet. It was pretty much like it was raining inside the rink. Once, I looked up and water fell right through my cage. The fog was an even bigger problem for us. The rink would fog up so badly, that they would have to turn on these fans to get rid of it. We’ll call it ‘home ice advantage’, but they would only turn on the fan at the ‘other’ end of the ice. It would clear up at their end of the ice, and then the ref would have to go and tap the glass and tell them to turn on the one at the opposite end. These fans were large, but the fog was so miserable that it took nearly 10 minutes to clear up."

August 8th, 2006...

"Our first game of the tournament was August 8th against Finland. They had such a dominant power play. They would play 2 guys in front and 3 guys up top. One of the guys in front of me would set the screen, and the other one set up back door. They’d take a shot from up top and I’d think the screen was going to tip it, so I’d go down, but really he’d just stop it and slide it back door to the other guy. About a half minute into the game we had a guy get called for slashing. Then another called for hooking at the same time. We all sat there thinking, ‘Wow, we’re 30 seconds into the game and they have a 5-on-3 for 2 minutes.’ It wasn’t the way we wanted to start the tournament, but we fought through it. The Fins had a real good power play, but during 5-on-5 play we had the upper hand. They were a smooth skating team with great passing and vision. We won that game 3-2 and were able to shut down their power play."

August 9th, 2006...

"The next night we played Russia. They were also a very good team, as was everyone in the tournament. We were dominant the first 2 periods, but Russia came out on fire in the 3rd period. That’s when Russia got most of their shots (21 of their 38). We won 4-2 and I was named U.S. Player of the Game. I felt it was an honor with so many outstanding hockey players on the ice. We needed a tie or win to get to the championship, so I knew our next game was going to be our toughest competition so far."

August 10th, 2006...

"The last game in our round robin pool was against the host team, the Czech Republic. The crowd was absolutely insane. They definitely love their home team. They had 10 of these huge homemade drums covered in leather, in the top row of the arena. They would pound the drums with these huge sticks, and it echoed through the whole arena. The crowd would chant along with the beating rhythms. The funny part is that they would get excited about nothing. The Czech’s would have someone pick up the puck in the defensive zone, and cross center ice, and the crowd would cheer amazingly loud. That game was definitely the toughest game of the tournament. We ended up winning 4-3 in OT, an exhilarating win. I was named Player of the Game for the second straight game, stopping 41 shots."

August 11th, 2006...

"August 11th was our day off before we faced Canada in the Gold Medal Game. We went to Brno, Czech Republic. The city was cool, the streets were made from brick, and we visited a church that was built in 1090. There was a little town square that had all these fruit and vegetable stands for people to come and buy. We didn’t get much variety when it came to food. For breakfast we would have the Czech version of Special K, but it had no taste, so we would cut up banana slices and put that on it to try to make it taste better. They also had Czech Coco Puffs, but I never tried those. Other than that, every meal was chicken and gravy and some kind of potato. They were either french fries, baked, fried, or mashed. It was kind of getting old. So in Brno they had all these street cafes. David Brownschidle and I hit up this Italian one. We ordered 3 huge pizzas, and ate every last piece. It was the best pizza I had ever tasted. It felt good to get away from chicken and gravy."

August 12th, 2006...

"The championship game was August 12th and Canada came out a lot sharper than us. We stuck with them for awhile. Their first goal was kind of a fluke; it deflected off a guy’s skate and nobody knew what happened, not even the Canadian players. All of a sudden they see it in the net and start cheering. Our team was kind of dumbfounded, and it really took the energy out of us. Canada was definitely the better team in that game and deserved to win. Our team was happy with the silver. We played our hearts out and had 3 emotional wins. We weren’t going to let one game ruin the whole experience for us. It was an honor for all of us to represent our country.

It was an honor to have the opportunity to represent the United States of America, to play with a great group of guys, to play with a great team staff, and also to play for a great coaching staff, which included Ed Olczyk and Jeff Blashill. It was a life lasting experience, and I am grateful for being given the chance to play for a United States International Hockey Team.”

-Natalie Shaver, August 28, 2006