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Justin Faulk has been a meteor flashing across the Minnesota hockey sky. Not yet 22 years old, Faulk is the youngest member of a youthful Team USA hockey team that will strive for gold at Sochi, Russia. He was younger still a year ago, when he played on the U.S. team that won the bronze medal at the World Championships. If it seems that Faulk is too impatient to wait until he acquires “proper” veteran status, that swift rise has been his trademark since he played his sophomore season at South St. Paul High School, then left to join the U.S. Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. He played on the Under-17 team for the 2008-09 season, then moved up to the Under-18 team for 2009-10, when he was a star on the U.S. Under-18 World Championship team. He scored 21 goals and 12 assists in 60 games for the overall season - including a team-leading 14 power-play goals. That obvious puck-handling skill made Faulk an immediate factor to plug into the 2010-11 UMD Bulldogs when he came to Duluth for his freshman season. If that year rings a bell, it’s because Faulk’s freshman year was also the year UMD won its first and only NCAA men’s hockey championship. The Bulldogs were strong from top to bottom that season, but Faulk earned a spot on a solid defensive corps with his strong two-way play, and particularly for his ability to direct the power play from the point. In 39 games, Faulk had 8-25-33, including 6 power-play goals and 2 game-winning goals. But as swiftly as he arrived in Duluth and sped through to that NCAA championship at St. Paul’s Xcel Center, Faulk was gone - signing an NHL contract with the Carolina Hurricanes, who had drafted him 37th overall, in the second round of the 2010 Entry Draft. Faulk’s talents continued their meteoric rise in 66 games with the Hurricanes when he scored 8-14-22 as an NHL rookie in 2011-12, including 5 power-play goals. A year ago, Faulk scored 5-10--15 in 38 games with Carolina, and this season his puck-handling skills made him a cinch to be selected by Team USA, where he will be called upon to help run the power play on a young, speedy and aggressive American squad at the Sochi, Russia, Olympics.