The Vulcan broke open a tight 2-2 game with two power play goals in the first minute of the second period and followed those goals with a third goal less than a minute later to take a 5-2 lead.  The Ice Bucks (kids from Ames Iowa and Fairmont MN) played the Vulcans even after that three goal flurry, but could not beat the Vulcans defense in the last two periods.  The Vulcans scored a late third period goal to end the scoring 7-2 and claim the 2003 American Division Championship. 

The first period ended in a 2-2 tie.  The Vulcans scored first.  Catching the Ice Buck’s defense changing shifts, Vulcan’s forward Jake Collier beat the Buck’s scrambling defenders by breaking left into the lower left face off area and beating the goalie with a backhander.  The Vulcans led 1-0.

Two minutes later, the Ice Bucks Hunter Hill tied the game on a rebound shot from the right side.  The Vulcan’s defense had lost sight of the puck.  At the six minute mark, the Bucks took a 2-1 lead when Mason Goebel scored a nice one-timer from the slot off a pass from the end boards by Jackson White.  It was the Bucks only lead of the game 2-1.

Then the Vulcan’s line of Carter Puente, Joey Vacek, and Jacob Cameron went to work scoring the first of four goals the line would score in the game.  Thirty seconds after the Ice Bucks took the lead, the Vulcans tied the game on a play similar to the Ice Buck’s second goal.  The Vulcan’s Puente scored the “one timer” off a pass from Vacek.  Both Vacek and Cameron got the assists.  Then with less than a minute left in the period, the Ice Bucks drew two tripping penalties.  They killed the penalties for the rest of the first period but faced the start of the second period two players down.

The second period opened with the Vulcans putting three quick goals in the net.  With less then 10 seconds left in the first penalty, Puente scored with assists from Vasek and Cameron.  The Vulcans’ Tyler Maynard scored the second power play goal unassisted and one minute later, Vasek scored with Puente and Cameron getting the assists.  The third goal to put the Vulcans up 5-2 two minutes into the second period.

The Ice Bucks stopped the Vulcans from scoring until late in the second period, but could not put the puck in the net despite having their chances.  The Vulcans’ Riley Ronquist scored the second period goal to put the Vulcans up 6-2.  Vacek got the assist.  Vacek scored the final goal with Puente and Cameron getting the assists.  The Puente-Vacek-Cameron line ended up with four goals and 13 points for the game.

The Ice Bucks started the game with a dramatic score when a hard shot on the Blizzard net ended up with the puck in the crease dangling at the toe of the goalie’s skate with the Bucks’ Brandon Dahnert bearing down and the goalie trying to scramble out of the butterfly to cover the puck.  Dahnert buried the puck to put the Ice Bucks (kids from Austin MN area) ahead 1-0.  AJ Corsello got the assist. 

The Blizzard tied the score when the Ice Buck’s defense mishandled the puck at the blue line and an errant pass put the puck on the Blizzard’s Matthew Carlsen’s stick breaking down the slot.  Carlsen put the puck in the upper left corner to tie the game 1-1.  Evan Lind got the assist.  The Blizzard (kids from the Alexandria MN area) took the lead late in the first period on a short handed goal.  The Carlsen/Lind duo struck again this time Carlsen scored from the blue line off Lind’s pass from behind the Ice Bucks’ net to give the Blizzard a 2-1 lead.

The Blizzard broke the game open in the second period scoring five goals.  Lind scored twice.  Wyatt Blahosky and Evan Lattimer got the assists on the first goal, the second goal was scored unassisted.  Lattimer scored once in the second period with Carlsen getting the assist.  Derek Pesta scored unassisted and Paul Schwartz scored with Truett Olson getting the assist.  The second period ended with the Blizzard leading 7-1.

The Blizzard added two goals in the opening minutes of the third period; Blahosky scored the first goal with assists going to Brock Shriver and Lattimer.  Pesta scored the second goal unassisted to put the Vulcans up 9-1.

But the Ice Bucks did not give up.  Nolan Wetzel came back to score a goal less than a minute later to cut the Vulcan lead to 9-2.  The Blizzard’s Lind scored shortly after to put the Blizzard up 10-2.  Schwartz got the assist.

Both teams were celebrating at the final whistle.  The third period was on running time and the clock was under 30 seconds when the Ice Bucks’ Ben Start ripped a shot from the center blue and that was tipped into the Blizzard net.  While the Ice Bucks were celebrating the goal, time ran out and the Blizzard starting celebrating their championship.  Nobody on the ice was unhappy as both teams skated their trophies around the ice and had pictures taken.
 

This game was scoreless deep into the third period when the Ice Edge took advantage of the Xtreme defense men getting caught out of position to score three late third period goals to win the game.  The first goal came when the left defense was caught out of position, exposing the goalie’s weak side right for the score.  The Ice Edge’s Austin McNeil made a long deep pass out of the left corner to Jon Von Bank breaking on the weak side with no defender home.  Von Bank put the puck in the net beating the goalie’s sliding save attempt.

A minute later, the Xtreme tied the game 1-1 when Tyler Jones broke into the left slot and buried the puck in the lower right corner.  Jones scored unassisted.  Two minutes later, the Ice Edge forwards caught the Xtreme defense trying to carry the puck into the Ice Edge zone along the right boards.  The Edge stripped the puck and turned that into a 2 on 1 rush.  This time Tim Piechowski scored a left weak side goal after Adam Trembley drew the lone Xtreme defender to the right and slid the puck to the left corner of the crease.
The Xtreme forwards had an extended shift and were skating tired, still they failed to back check exposing the weak side.  The Ice Edge led 2-1.
A minute later, with the same Xtreme defense and offense on the ice, the Ice Edge scored again on the same play.  The Edge forwards caught the defense trying to force the play at the Edge blue line, stripped the puck and scored on the weak side beating the lone Xtreme defense man.  Again the Xtreme was trying to be overly aggressive and forwards were too tired to back check.  Trembley set up the goal and got his second assist.  Austin McNeil got the goal.

The final score was 3-1.  Overall it was a good game until the final minutes with both teams having chances to break a 0-0 tie.  Ice Edge team is from  the Twin Cities southwest suburbs (Eden Prairie area) and the Xtreme team is from the south suburbs (Burnsville area).

The Stars took a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period, opened the game up in the second period to take a 6-0 lead into the third.  Their strong play of their forwards dominated the Renagades for long periods of time in the Renagades’ zone.  Except for  second period, the Renagades defense kept the Stars close.  The Stars Tanner Casasanta scored twice for the Stars; Jake Behse had a goal and an assist for the Stars.

After playing to a 1-1 tie in the first two periods, the Ice Edge scored three times in the third period to beat the Mavericks 4-2 in the 1998 Championship game.  The Ice Edge’s Curtis Hansen scored twice and had one assist.  Jon Pearson and Mitch Bourgerie scored once for the Edge.  Colton Kruse and Jacob Otta scored for the Mavericks.  The Ice Edge consist of players from the northwestern part of the cities, the Mavericks come from Southern Minnesota.

 

This game was decided in the first minutes of play when the Flames scored both their goals.  The Loons came back late in the opening period to cut the lead to 2-1 and then the goalies went to work and shut out the teams the rest of the game.  Both goalies earned MVP game awards.

The Flames August Falloon scored the two Flames goals, the first goal was assisted and scored in the opening minute.  Derek Dormann got the assist.  The second was unassisted and was scored a minute later.  The Flames led 2-0 with 13 minutes left on the clock in the opening period.

The Loons lone goal was scored as the first period was ending.  Loon’s goalie Braxton Juncewski saw most of the pressure in the second and third periods as the Flames forwards trapped the Loons in the Loon’s zone for long periods of time forcing Juncewski to make multiple stops in a sequence.   The Loon’s forward would break the Flames pressure at times, charge into the Flames’ zone, and terrorize the Flames goalie with odd man rushes.

It was a fun game to watch and the fans were really rooting their teams on.

This game was a struggle for both teams.  The Acceleration team (Wayzata kids) slowly built a 3-0 and seemed to be in control of the game.  Three Acceleration kids scored goals, Carson Peters got the opening goal, Per Waage scored the second goals and Dylan Nelko scored the third goal.

Leading 3-0 late in the third period, the Solar Bears Black’s Joshua Grosdidier muscled two pucks by the Acceleration goalie to cut the lead to 3-2.  Nickolas Robinson got the assists.  Those scores turned the last minute of game into one frantic minute of play to avoid the tie.  The Acceleration team held the Black to end the game with a 3-2 win and a championship trophy.

The Mavericks took a two goal lead late in the first period and made it stand up in a hard fought game for 1999 Championship Trophy.  Tyler Wencl scored the first goal halfway through the first period to put the Mavericks up 1-0.  Austin Dulitz and Trevor Schroder got the assists.  Late in the first period, Joe Krueger scored what turned out to be the game winner.  Adam Rehman got the assist.  The Mavericks led 2-0 at the end of the first period.

The Renagades’ Ryan Falk scores their lone goal early in the second period to cut the Mavericks lead to 2-1.  Falk’s goal was unassisted.  This game was one of the better hard fought games played at the weekend tourney.

In one of the more dramatic championships, the Monopoly edged the Acceleration 4-3 in a shootout that ended with the Monopoly goalie stopping the last shooter, dropping his gloves and stick and charging the Monopoly bench before the puck hit the end boards.

It was that kind of game.

Acceleration took 1-0 lead early in the first period on a goal by Blake Ask with Preston Thelemann getting the assist. Late in the first period, Monopoly’s Jack Hymanson scored to tie the game 1-1.  Luke Springett got the assist.

Monopoly scored twice in the second to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.  Acceleration’s Ask scored unassisted halfway through the second period to put his team up 2-1.  Monopoly’s Cade Wyluda scored three minutes later to tie the game 2-2 with Sam Haberman and Cole Avery getting assists.  Avery scored Monopoly’s third goal to put them up 3-2 going into the third period.

With six minutes to go in the third period, Jack Seamans got the tying goal for Acceleration turning the last minutes of the third period and the shootout into a nail biting affair.  Evan Spadafora and Jay Lindahl got the assists.

That set up the shootout and the game and the championship came down to one last shot on goal with Monopoly’s goalie Evan Melville making a great stop on the shooter trying to beat him going left and resulted in the remarkable feat of dropping all excess equipment and leaping into to the celebration before anybody else could react.  Melville was really “into” the game.

The Mavericks scored halfway through the opening period, scored with less than a minute to go in the second period and hung on to win the 2000 American Championship 2-0.  Dylan Schneider scored the Mavericks first period goal with Paul Hofbauer getting the assist.  Isaac Carlson scored the second period goal with Mason Plante getting the assist.

Southern Minnesota kids and Fargo North Dakota kids tangled for the 2003 National title at the Super Rink Sunday.  The Mavericks from the south jumped out to an early lead behind four goals scored by Aiden VonRooyan and cruised to a 8-2 victory in the 2003 National Championship game.  Payton Marquardt had two assists and Joey Brein, Josh Blaha, and Landon Johnson all scored for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks took a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period, widen it to 5-1 going into the third on their way to the championship.  Kade Peterson scored twice for the North Stars. a first year team out of Fargo that had a good tournament.

In the last championship game Sunday, the Ice Edge Blue beat the Sabres 7-0 to win the 1998 title.  The Edge were led by Sam Amundsen.  Amundsen scored three goals and had one assist as the Edge took a 4-0 lead at the end of the first period.  Zack Kloeckner, Ryan Peterson, Duncan Jensen, and Connor Olson all scored for the Edge as they took a 7-0 lead into the third period.  Four of the seven Edge goals came on the power play.