Little Caesars (4-0-1) 

The orange-and-blue made quick work of their opponents on opening weekend, rattling off three straight wins after tying NorthStar Elite 4-4 in their second game of the weekend. 

Little Caesars held opponents to 12 goals in the first five games of USEL play, and allowed a single goal in back-to-back wins over Southeast Elite and Yeti Tape. 

Forward Ethan Garden currently leads all USEL league players with five goals and 11 points (tied with nonaffiliated player Liam Donnelly of NorthStar Elite), followed by forwards Grandon Echols (5 goals, 4 assists, 9 points) and Jacob Monks (2-5-7). Rounding out the scoring leaders for Little Caesars are Brooks Rogowski (4-2-6) and Dominic Pajkic (3-3-6). 

Coyote (4-1) 

The spring/summer program for the Chicago Mission, Coyote matched Little Caesars with a league-high four wins last weekend, winning four straight games after falling to NorthStar elite 7-2 in the opener. 

Coyote edged SDP 6-4 in game two, then held Yeti Tape, Southeast Elite, and Mhyro Hockey to a single goal each in three consecutive wins. Coyote tallied 20 goals over its last four weekend games, good for an average of 5 goals-per-game. 

Lukas Zajic leads Coyote in scoring with five goals and eight points, with Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll right behind him with four goals and seven points. 

Goaltender Jake Windbiel owns some of the USEL’s best goaltending numbers, posting a .925 save percentage after standing between the pipes for 125 minutes. 

Select Development Program (3-2) 

Host SDP bounced back after heartbreaking opening losses against Little Caesars (4-3) and Coyote (6-4), picking up three straight wins over Mhyro Hockey, NorthStar Elite, and Yeti Tape. 

After being held pointless in the first game against Little Caesars, SDP’s Dylan Dean notched three goals and five assists in the next four contests, and ranks as SDP’s leading scorer with his eight total points. JP Hurlbert’s four-point Sunday (two goals, two assists) propelled him to second behind Dean among SDP skaters with seven points for the weekend. 

Windy City (3-2) 

The nation’s No. 1 ranked team among 2008 birth years according to last year’s MyHockeyRankings formula, Windy City bookended the first weekend of USEL play with losses. 

Windy City dropped its opener 4-0 to Yeti Tape, earned wins over Southeast Elite, NorthStar Elite, and Mhyro Hockey on Friday night and Saturday, then dropped a 4-3 battle against Little Caesars to close out the weekend.

A trio of forwards ice Windy City in scoring after five games, with Easton Walos (2-4-6), Keegan Gregory (4-2-6), and Nathan Hauad (5-1-6) all knotted to half-a-dozen points. 

Yeti Tape (1-3-1) 

Yeti Tape (otherwise known as Detroit Honeybaked) started the weekend with a bang, shutting out Windy City 4-0, but struggled to put points on the board the rest of the weekend. Yeti Tape tied Mhyro Hockey 2-2 in its second game on Friday, then fell to Coyote, Little Caesars, and SDP in succession to close out play in Golden Valley. 

For Yeti Tape to get back into the top half of the USEL standings, it will need continued strong performances from leading scorers Michael Mahoney, Lucas Larson, Tyler Martyniuk, and Mark Schaefer. Joe Erickson, who led the team in total points with four, is a Minnesota native that filled in for Yeti Tape due to injury.

Defensively, goaltender Andrew McLouth showed well, positing a goals-against-average of 2.67 and a .905 save percentage. 

Mhyro Hockey (1-3-1) 

Playing with a mixed bag of East Coasters and Minnesotans, Mhyro Hockey had its bright spots during opening weekend, and will look to fall into a consistent pattern as USEL play continues in May. 

Two of Mhyro Hockey’s three losses were by three goals or less, losing 4-3 to Windy City and 4-1 against Coyote on Sunday. A 7-1 loss to SDP on Saturday morning ended Mhyro Hockey’s two-game unbeaten stretch, in which the group scored a 6-3 win over Southeast Elite and settled for a 2-2 tie with Yeti Tape. 

In game one, a three-goal, two-assist performance by Lucien Haskus sparked the high-flying Long Island Gull to a five-goal, nine-point weekend, leading Mhyro Hockey in both categories.