Maple Grove's Brock Faber Named Alternate Captain Of U.S. Juniors

RED DEER, ALBERTA, —Maple Grove native Brock Faber on Tuesday was named an alternate captain for the 2022 U.S. National Junior Hockey Team ahead of the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships, which begin Sunday in Alberta, Canada.

Faber, a sophomore defenseman for the University of Minnesota, joins a Team USA leadership team that includes: captain Jake Sanderson, University of North Dakota, and fellow alternate captains Matty Beniers, University of Michigan, and Landon Slaggert, Notre Dame.

All four players were part of the gold-medal winning U.S National Junior Team at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championships, which were played in Edmonton. This year's U.S. squad has a total of six returnees from last year's team.

"The strength of this (2022) team is its leadership and we have a group of guys that have earned the letter on their jersey both on and off the ice," USA coach Nate Leaman said. "There are even more leaders in our locker room. We're excited about this group overall, and for us to be successful, every player will need to find a way to lead."

The 6-foot-1, 200-pound Faber also is one of three current Gophers on the U.S. roster, which also includes freshman forwards Matthew Knies and Chaz Lucius, who is from Grant.

The Gophers currently are 10-8 overall, 6-4 in the Big Ten. Knies is third on the team with 16 points (7 goals, 9 assists), Faber has nine points (2 goals, 7 assists) and Lucius has eight points (5 goals, 3 assists).

The U.S roster includes two other Minnesotans: defenseman Wyatt Kaiser, from Ham Lake and Minnesota-Duluth, and Jake Peart, from Grand Rapids and St. Cloud State.

Faber, who played youth hockey with the Minnesota Blades, was a second-round pick (45th overall) by the Los Angeles Kings in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. He was the highest Minnesotan selected in that draft.

Team USA is scheduled to open the IIHF World Junior Championships against Slovakia at 8:30 p.m. Central on Sunday at the Centrium in Red Deer. The game will be shown live on NHL Network.

It's the first of four Group B preliminary round games for the Americans, all of them played in Red Deer. The others are:

3:30 p.m. Central on Tuesday vs. Switzerland, NHL Network

8:30 p.m. Central on Dec. 29 vs. Sweden, NHL Network

8:30 p.m. Central on Dec. 31 vs. Russia, NHL Network

The tournament's four quarterfinals take place on Jan. 2, the semifinals are on Jan. 4 and the bronze-medal and gold-medal games are scheduled for Jan. 5. The quarterfinals will be played in Red Deer and Edmonton's Rogers Place, while the semifinals, bronze-medal game and gold-medal game all will be in Edmonton.

All of the elimination games will be televised on the NHL Network.