Tropp puts on the foil as camp closes

After a Thursday break, tournament play at the U.S. National Evaluation Camp in Lake Placid resumed on Friday against entries from Sweden and Finland. Per NHL.com's Shawn Roarke, RW Corey Tropp (3rd round, 2007), along with Colin Wilson, Jake Gardiner, Colin Long, and Drew LeBlanc, moved from Team Blue to Team White as USA coaches mixed-and-matched talent as part of their assessment. The Friday contest between USA White and Sweden was the first of two games to be played on the Olympic sized 1980 sheet. Packing more familiarity with the wider surface, Sweden skated their way to a 7-3 win. Tropp did not play a part in any of the USA White goals. White would bounce back on Saturday, defeating Finland by a 5-2 score. Tropp was again held off the scoresheet, but did register a fighting major and match penalty after a skirmish with Thrasher's prospect Niclas Lucenius. Coming at the 18:48 mark of the second period, his battle with the hard-checking center was the only of its kind in the camp's eight games. Another Fin received a misconduct on the play, but the circumstances or extent of what took place are unclear at this point. A nice picture of the action can be found here. In the end, Tropp scored one goal through four international games. When factoring in production in the intra-squad scrimmages, a dent of some sort was made during the initial evaluation process. Either way, the USHL product should translate his experience into leading minutes with Michigan State this fall. The only question now is where the Spartan sophomore will be playing his hockey over the Christmas break - in Detroit at the Great Lakes Invitational, or in Ottawa at the World Juniors.