Princeton's Jack Southand scores on a blast Sunday
This past weekend Breezy Point Arena hosted eight Bantam A teams looking to head into the Thanksgiving Holiday with some hardware. White Bear Lake, Sauk Rapids, Andover and Pine City would form pool A while Northern Lakes, Centennial, Princeton, and Armstrong Cooper would make up pool B.
Sauk Rapids went 1-0-2 in pool play to advance to the championship. They skated to ties with White Bear Lake (2-2) and Pine City (3-3) with their lone victory being a (8-1) win over Andover. Princeton earned its ticket to the championship with a hard fought (6-4) win over Armstrong Cooper as well as lopsided wins over Centennial (7-0) and Northern Lakes (10-2).
Princeton's CJ Zins scores on a pretty goal Sunday
In the Championship game both Sauk Rapids and Princeton came out ready to play with both teams trading early period scoring chances. After early back and forth play Princeton was able to light the lamp twice in the first taking a 2-0 lead to the intermission. Princeton came out flying in the second period showing us that the 23 goals it scored in pool play was no fluke. Four different skaters tallied in the second, including a nifty shorthanded breakaway goal by Carter Flor to show us their balanced scoring and take a 6-0 lead. Sauk Rapids finally solved Princeton's Owen Mason in the third when Conner Cariveau found the back of the net. It was too little too late however as Princeton would score one more in the third and win the Championship with a 7-1 win over Sauk Rapids.
Princeton's Matthew Swanson scores Sunday in the Tiger's big win
Jonah Jangula had the GWG for AC on Sunday
Earlier in the day White Bear Lake and Armstrong Cooper met in the third place game. Neither team could generate much offense in this contest with no scoring in the first. Samuel Yobbie of White Bear and Ian Bahr of Armstrong Cooper traded second period goals to send us to the third tied at one.
It was much of the same during the third until Armstrong Cooper's Jonah Jangula found the net with just over five minutes to play putting Armstrong Cooper up by one. White Bear Lake would pull its goalie but even with the extra attacker could not tie this one up. After taking third in the Blue Ox last weekend, Armstrong Cooper would win 2-1 and claim third place for the second week.