The honor of winning a NCAA national championship to cap off his senior year was not enough for Nick Maricic ’13. After leaving the college hockey world on top, Maricic suited up for Team USA in the IIHF InLine hockey world championships and helped the United States take home its record-breaking sixth gold medal.
Team USA competed in the top division of the world championships held in Dresden, Germany, consisting of the best eight InLine teams in the world. Canada, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, USA, Czech Republic, Sweden and Slovakia were seeded in the top division in the preceding order and another eight teams made up the Division I category. Team USA played six games — three in the preliminary round and three playoff games-including the championship.
Maricic split time in the net with another goaltender, Jerry Kuhn III, and was able to come away with wins against Canada and Germany. Against Team Canada, Maricic stopped 31 of 34 shots to oust the Canadians 5-3 and against Germany ,he was able to turn away 12 of 16 shots to win the quarterfinals 7-4.
In the final, Team USA scored first when Arcibal Nielsson slid one past Andreas Ollikainen, the Swedish goaltender, just 1:37 into regulation. The Swedes were quick to equalize and by the end of the second period had taken the lead 2-1 after a scoreless second period from Team USA. The United States pulled back in front in the third period, outscoring Sweden 2-0 and making the score 3-2 before putting the final nail in the coffin in the fourth period with three goals to Sweden’s one for a final score of 6-3.
Sweden finished the tournament with a silver medal and Canada with a bronze.