This will be last the last year for the 1990′s teams.  The millennium is no longer part of the youth hockey tourney’s at the USA International Boys Tourneys.

The first of the final 1900′s Semifinals between the Minnkota Nationals and Minnesota Warriors was a good hockey game.  The Warriors jumped to a 3-1 lead after the first period on goals by Luke Benson, Calvin Chester, and Willie Manthis.   Dawson Kram scored the National’s first period goal.

The Nationals score twice in the second period and the Warriors once.  The period ended with the Warriors still leading by a single goal 4-3.  Graydon Stone and Kram got the Nats second period goals; Cam Fagerlee scored for the Warriors.  The Nats dominated play at the start of the third period and pressured the Warriors trapping them in their zone.  Three minutes into the period, the Warriors broke the Nats defense and started a 3-on-2 rush that ended with a neat tip-in.  The puck  was popped over the Nats’ goalie Alexa Berg’s shoulder and dropped behind into the net.

Cody Johann scored the goal and John Greniuk got the assist.  The Warriors’ Fagerlee scored on breakaway two minutes later to put the Warriors up 6-3.  Johan added a late score to end the game 7-3.

The Western Wisconsin Blue Devils bedeviled Team Combat in the first period and built a 5-0 lead to put the Combat team on running time early in the first semifinal game.  Both teams had similar white jerseys.  Team Combat ended up with the yellow pull overs except for the goalie.

Jack Gorniak scored two of the five goals and assisted on another.  Joe Free and Trey Labarge each scored a goal.  The Blue Devils built their biggest lead at the end of the second period 7-1 on two more goals by Brandon Connett and Jacob Dirks.   Kyle Yeo scored the single Team Combat goal.  Yeo assisted on the two third period goals to cut the Devils lead to 7-3.  Jack Bayless and Brian Anderson scored the goals.

Parker Tepp scored the final Devils goal to end the scoring 8-3.

Western Wisconsin beat the Minnesota Warriors 7-3 in the championship game.  Jacob Dirks two goals (one at the end of the second period and one in the first three minutes of the third) turned a close 3-1 game into a 5-1 game and the Devils won going away.  Nate Olson and Nick Stephani scored for the Warriors in the third period; but Labarge and Austin Larson countered with goals to end the game 7-3.

Note: The 2000 USA International Cup semifinal and championship game stories will be posted Tuesday.

In a friendship game Sunday morning, the Precision Hockey 00 team beat the Minnkota Nats 00 team 6-4.  It was one of the more physical games played and despite the hitting. only five penalties were called (four for interference).  It was a relatively clean skated game.  None of the 10 goals scored were power play goals.

The Minnkota team took a 2-1 lead after the first period on goals by Cole Forest and Dalton Hierner.  Robby Drazner scored the Precision’s only first period goal with Conor Wilson getting the assist.  Drazner ended up with a hat trick and assist to lead the Precision team in scoring with four points; Wilson added two more assists to end the game with three points.  Precision’s Freddie MacCiocchi added two goals and Zach Galvin scored once for the Red.

The Nats’ Cole Forest scored twice and Dalton Hiemer once.  Luke Oster scored at the end of the second period to put the Nats up 4-3 going into the third period.  Then the Precision’s Drazner, Wilson, and MacCiocchi went to work teaming up to score three third period goals for the 6-4 win.

The USA International Cup for the 2001′s went tropical.  In a subdued blaze of orange and green, the Omaha Tropics beat the Northern Wisconsin Blizzard 7-2 in the semifinals and went on to beat the Minnkota Nationals 5-4 in overtime in the championship game.  The Nationals beat the Great Lakes Blues in their semifinal to gain the championship game.

The Omaha Tropics and Northern Wisconsin Blizzard game was the most spirited of the Sunday’s morning games.  The game was a fierce battle for most of the first two periods with both teams playing tough defensive hockey.  The Tropics scored the first goal in the opening minutes of the second period on a blue line shot that was neatly deflected on the way to the net.  That opened the door and Omaha went on to a 7-2 win.

After a scoreless first period, the Tropic’s Brent Keefer scored a power play goal to put the Tropics up 1-0 20 seconds into the second period.  Thomas Jarman fired a low line drive at the Blizzard net from the left blue line that Keefer tipped near the face off circle beating the goalie through his right leg pad (see the four pictures).  Keefer went on a binge after that scoring three more goals in the next seven minutes to put the Tropics up 4-0.

The Blizzard never recovered.  Omaha won the game beating the Northern Wisconsin team 7-2.

The Tropics out shot the Blizzard 31-2.  The Tropics goalie saw only the two scores and made no saves in the game.

The Minnkota Nationals beat the Great Lakes Blues in a game similar to the Tropics/Blizzard game. The first period was close ending a 1-1 tie, but the Nats blew the game open early in the second periood on the play of Andy Thomas.  Thomas had assisted on the first period goal, he assisted on the first two goals scored by the Nats in the second period and then went on a scoring rampage scoring three times to get a hat trick and six points for the game.  Nathan Gilleshammer, Cabe Stibbe, Andy Thomas, and Aidan Potas scored the other Nats goals.

Brooke Brink scored twice for the Blues.

In the championship game, neither Keefer for Omaha or Thomas for Minnkota Nats figured in the scoring.  Both drew penalties but neither team could score on the ensuing power play.  Penalties did play a roll in the game when two minor penalties were called on the late in the second period on the Nationals with the score tied 3-3.  The Tropics’ Jarman scored with the two man advantage with Tyler Sanborn getting the assist.

The Nats’ Blake Grenyo scored his second goal of the game in the opening minute of the third period to tie the game 4-4 and eventually put the game into overtime.  Three minutes into overtime, Andrew Kozol scored the tournament winning goal with Bryce Bataglia getting the assist.

The Precision’s 02 team won the 2013 USA International Cup beating the Ice Age Black 10-5.  The game was a rough wide open game with Precision team jumping out to a 5-2 lead after the first period.  Isaac Olson scored twice in the first period and ended up with a hat trick.  Quinn Murphy, Nicholas Ahern, and Will Free each scored twice; Jacob Bland scored once.  Five of the 10 Precision goals were unassisted, two were scored unassisted and short handed.  Only six assists were handed out, Katelyn McCarty got two of them.

Ahern led the Precision team in goals (13) and points (21) for the tourney; McCarty led the team in assists (9).

At 1:00 Sunday, the Super Rink was dominated by Walser teams playing three championship games.  They lost the 2003 and 2004 championship games and won the 2000 championship, but if you took a quick spin around the Rinks 1-4 all you would see is blue and wide jerseys with Honda on the back.

In the 2003 championship game, the Wisconsin Michigan Destroyers (WMD) team from the Upper Peninsula on the south shore of Lake Superior edged to a 2-0 opening first period lead on the strength of two goals scored by Carson Finney and went on to beat Team Walser 7-1.  The 2003 WMD team this year is made up of kids from the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula  and Lansing, Michigan.

A quick opening second period goal by Team Walser’s Zach Jaunich cut the score to 2-1 with Dylan Lewis getting the assist.  But the WMD came back quickly led by Finney and Jackson Martin.  The two teamed up for two more second period goals with Finney scoring and Martin getting the assist.  Finney assisted on the third goal of the second period.  Danny Abdouch scored the goal.

WMD added two third period goals; Ansel Frost scored the first goal with Ryan Kusler assisting; Kusler scored the second goal with Tyler Godfrey assisting.

Finney led the WMD team in scoring for the tourney with 16 points and he led the team in assists with 5.  The Walser 03 team top point getter was Dylan Lewis with 9 and he led the Walser team in assists with 4.

The Miracle Gold 04 team won the 2004 championship beating Team Walser 8-1.  Both teams had rolled up big wins in the semifinals, the Gold beat the 04 Bucks 13-1 and Team Walser beating the Minnkota Nationals 12-0.  Walser had beaten the Gold 4-3 in pool play and were unbeaten going into the championship game.

The Gold jumped to a 4-0 first period lead and addend two more goals in the first seven minutes of the second period before Walser’s Zach Johnsrud scored unassisted on a power play to cut the Gold’s lead to 6-1 halfway through the game.

The Gold’s William Whitelaw scored a hat trick getting two first period goals and a second period goal.  Oliver Moore scored twice, once in the first period and once in the second period.  Bryce Laager, Joey Sylvester, and Matt Lomen each scored once.

Whitelaw led the Miracle Gold 04 in scoring with 10 points; Grant Dardis led in assists with 5.  Wyatt Chartier led Team Walser with 11 points; Elijah Moore led with 6 assists.