“It was a great effort all the way around tonight,” said Ben Smith, head coach of Team USA. “Curry was solid in the net. It was exciting to see our young goaltender get his first international win.”

Team USA got on the board first with a power-play goal from Landon Wilson (St. Louis, Mo.) at 16:38 of the first stanza when his shot beat netminder Dimitrij Kotschnew. With just 31 seconds left in the period, Lee Sweatt (Elburn, Ill.) fed Andy Hedlund (Osseo, Minn.) who fired a slap shot from the middle point that beat Kotschnew low-stick side.

Tim Stapleton (La Grange, Ill.) extended the U.S. advantage to 3-0 at 10:31 of the second period. Stapleton broke in on a 2-on-1 with Wilson, held the puck, faked to his backhand and tucked it into the net. Youri Ziffzer replaced Kotschnew in the German goal, but just 1:19 later, Ziffzer was pulled in favor of an extra attacker to give Germany a 6-on-3 power play. With the three-man advantage, Michael Wolf tallied a goal to cut the deficit, 3-1, at 12:34.

In the final frame, with Ziffzer pulled for another 6-on-3 opportunity, John Tripp tallied a goal to bring Germany within one. Ziffzer was pulled yet again with three minutes to play in the period, but Team USA held off the German attack to preserve the 3-2 victory.

The U.S. Men’s Select Team returns to action tomorrow night against Denmark at the 2007 Deutschland Cup at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. EST), at the TUI-Arena.

NOTES: John Curry was named U.S. Player of the Game … Four other USA Hockey teams are seeing international action this week, including the U.S. National Under-17 and Under-18 Teams, the U.S. Women’s Select Team and the U.S. Junior Select Team. For more information and a complete box score from this game, visit www.usahockey.com.