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| July 29, 2002
By Jim Anderson
NARCh Update, Day 1
Saturday, July 27 2002
|  Newsflash: Coming soon to
NARCh.com, a live webcast of the
Finals! We're ironing out the last
remaining hurdles and should have
it up and running late Monday, July 29.
After months of anticipating, planning
and waiting, the 2002 NARCh Finals
began this morning as the VC
Vipers, Hawks, Mission Cobras and
Wind Surf & Sail Stars kicked off the
tournament at 7AM.
The Xcel Energy Center, home of the
NHL's Minnesota Wild, is truly a
world class facility. If you haven't
already check out the Photos and
Videos section of the website to see
for yourself.
Newsflash: Coming soon to
NARCh.com, a live webcast of the
Finals! We're ironing out the last
remaining hurdles and should have
it up and running late Monday, July 29.
For those of you who have been here
at the Finals so far, make sure you
check out the Jumbotron at the Arena
rink. Our reporters have been
interviewing players, parents and
fans throughout the day along with
snippets from games and NARCh
Skills and playing them back during
stoppages in play throughout the
day.
Of course, none of this would be
possible without the help of our
sponsors. They are all here
displaying their products at the
Finals and showing off their display
booths. How much room can our
sponsors take up? Over 300 feet, a
football field in length, at the
moment. From PS2's, various chairs
and couches, rug hockey, box hockey
and a mini rink, there's never a dull
moment.
There was also quite a bit of hockey
played today, 72 games in total
spanning some 19 hours.
"It has been some of the most
intense play I've seen all year" said
Tournament Director Jeff Gardner
when discussing the early round
Squirt division action. At the end of
the first day there were quite a few
strong teams with the Hawks,
Kansas City Rage, Mission Cobras,
Nor Cal Mavericks, Rush, Oakville
Coyotes '89, Matteson Cobras and
Tour Flames all starting off with 2-0
records.
The Atom division also started with 8
teams fittingly in the 8 & Under age
group. Team Excalibur started off
strong with a 2-0 record along with
the Brea Oilers.
Women's Gold is proving to be a very
tough division with no games on the
first day of play being decided by
more than 1 goal. Despite the close
games both the hometown Fancy
Pants and Team Excalibur staked
themselves to a perfect start at 2-0.
For the men, the Senior's started on
Saturday as well. The St. Louis
Stars, who placed 2nd last year, have
found that a return to the
Championship Game will not be an
easy task after they dropped a hard
fought game to the Minnesota Hang.
Leading the way at the end of the first
day were Greasy Joe's, Tour
Xplosion, Team Yeungling and Team
Blades. The last 2 are from NJ,
which has developed some strong
Sr. teams over the past couple of
years.
One platinum division is also
underway during the first couple days
of the Finals. Division 1, and outside
of NARCh PRO is still the most
exciting group to watch play in terms
of sheer skill and ability. The White
Bear Lake Bears showed that they
have what it takes to compete after
playing Mission Rinkside Rockets to
a 3-3 tie on Saturday. The 2001
champs, Toronto Tour Tigers
opened their defense with a 2-0 start
and were joined by the Pama
Cyclones and Tour Predators atop
the leaders after the first day of play.
Saturday also saw the NARCh Skills
take place in the Atom and Squirt
divisons. Check the Photos and
Videos for images. Listed below are
the winners in each category.
Atom Gold:
Fastest Skater:
Bryan Cowles - Brea Oilers
Sniper:
Adam Reid - Brea Oilers
Top Goaltender:
Cody Troolines - Brea Oilers
Squirt Gold:
Fastest Skater:
Anthony Malani - Tour Flames
Sniper
Travis Noe - VC Vipers
Top Goaltender
Brian Pawlicki - Tour Flames
I'd also like to mention that once
again NARCh has teams from
across the world playing in the
Finals. Team Time 2 Shine is from
the UK along with Team Misconduct
and Mapple Syrup, both of whom are
from Japan. You can see the strides
being made in their respective
countries each year as they come
back to the Finals.
Check back each day for daily recaps
here on NARCh.com and keep an
eye out for that live webcast as well
later on in the week.
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