The Annual USRBL All Star Game and the Legends vs Young Guns Game provided some mid-summer highlights for the 2017 United States Rink Bandy League (USRBL)

USRBL All Star Game

The annual USRBL All Star game main event featuring the previous winters’ USA National Team against the USRBL All Stars have been nothing short of epic the last four years. This game has been highlighting the incredible skating talent being displayed in North American bandy and the 2017 match on July 17th at Parade Ice Gardens did not disappoint.

All Stars playing in this ‘match included NHL veteran Jamie McBain (who recently signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning) as well as the league’s top skaters including Swedish bandy pro Daren Richardson, perennial bandy stars John Arundel, Mike Hosfield and Jon Keseley as well as former pro hockey players Archie Skalbeck and Joe Rehkamp facing off against the 2017 Team USA that was successful in the 2017 World Championship A-Pool in Sandviken, Sweden. Team USA was fully loaded as they had all of their veteran international players including captain Mile Carman, Richardson, Andrew Knutson, Mikael Lickteig and Kevin Brown even flew in from Sweden to make the game. Team USA took a quick 5-1 lead but the All Stars hung in there and chipped away at the lead, closing the gap to only a couple goals with 15 minutes left. The All Stars were able to tie the game on clutch goals by Mike Hosfield and Archie Skalbeck and suddenly took a two goal lead with a few minutes left. The All Stars pulled their goalie and Dane Erickson scored late to make it 13-12, but the clock ran out and the All Stars prevailed. The Mojo’s Mike Hosfield’s hat trick earned him the game MVP crystal. The league’s leading scorer Mikael Lickteig was named best Team USA player.