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| August 5, 2002
By Jim Anderson
Day Nine Wrap Up: Hyper wins Pro, OCB 88 wins Pee Wee
Junior Teams Battle For A Spot In The Championship
|  Thirteen playoff games, including the
Pee Wee and PRO finals, took place
today along with the Pee Wee All
Stars.
Pee Wee:
Top seeded OC Blades 88 advanced
to the championship with a hard
fought 2-1 victory over the St. Louis
Tour Blast.
Hyper Empire 87 then spoiled an all
Blades final by eliminating the '87's
in the second semi by a 4-1 margin..
Hyper was trying to add the Finals
win to their Winternationals title this
past January while the 88's were
trying to show that despite being a
bunch of 1st years, they had what it
takes to be a NARCh champion.
OCB was able to play their strong
defense, the only team to score on
them the entire tournament was the
St.Louis Tour Blast who scored one
goal in each of their 2 matchups. In
the end OC Blades 88 defeated
Hyper Empire 87 by a 3-0 score.
A couple hours later the Pee Wee's
regrouped and played their All Star
Game. The only problem we had
with the game was that we could only
put 12 skaters on each side. The
WEST were a loose bunch before
they even took the floor and it carried
over as they scored a few seconds
into the game and never looked
back, cruising to a 9-6 victory.
NARCh PRO:
Team DNA beat Team Tour Labeda
for the 2nd time this weekend in the
4 vs 5 playoff game, winning 6-4.
Team DNA then faced the #1 seed
Tour Mudcats in what became a
highly physical game. Although such
a style would suit DNA more, the
Mudcats eventually found the net a bit
more than DNA and skated to a 4-2
win.
Team Mission and Team Hyper
faced off in the 2nd semifinal.
Mission won their initial meeting on
Friday evening. Hyper seemed to be
a bit uncohesive in that game but
steadily improved as the weekend
progressed, and found their stride
winning easily, 4-1.
The Mudcats and Team Hyper took
the floor shortly after the opening
ceremonies (which featured US and
Canadian Anthems, speeches from
Jeff Mason, Daryn Goodwin, Bob
Naegele, and the NARCh Bear who
brought prizes from the NARCh
sponsors) and after a quick fix of the
lights, the game was on. The
Mudcats scored first, and Hyper tied
the score and took the lead with a
goal in the waning seconds of the
1st half. In the 2nd half, Hyper never
looked back, scoring 2 goals midway
through the period an taking a
commanding 4-1 lead. They added
one more late to seal the 5-1 victory.
What future will come of the PRO
teams between now and January?
Team DNA looks to have quite a bit
of potential and won some big
games in St.Paul.
Tour Mudcats have some new faces,
Jamie Bufalino in goal along with
Ryan Leggatt, and appear to have a
strong nucleus of 20somethings to
compete for the next couple of
seasons.
Team Tour Labeda was missing
their usual magic this week. One
less than stellar event doesn't mean
these guys are finished though,
anytime you have Lund, Hanson,
Nelson and Nelson, you are in the
hunt.
Team Hyper and Team Mission,
have any of these players aged over
the past couple of years? Gerry St.
Cyr just won another High Scorer
(with 10 assists, so all you kids see
its possible to win this and not score
goals) this evening and players like
Hyper's Mark Woolf seem to just put
up points and play the big games
well year in and year out.
CCM Hosers, soon..they made a
splash at Winters, teams were a bit
more prepared for them here..Bauer
Hyper Cyclones, need a big win to
get some momentum.
Squirts continued preliminary play
this morning. OC Blades, AMB 89,
St.Louis Tour Blast 89, RapidFire
Tour Dragons, appear to be the early
favorites.
Bantam also continued with Team E,
Hyper Metro Storm, Mission
Honeybaked 85, and Red Army
looking strong on the first day. AMB
85 also posted a strong win over the
Mission Empire Snipers.
Mite's: Team Hyper and LI Royals
both had strong games this
afternoon with Hyper defeating the
Tour Smoke and the Royals posting
wins over Mission Minnesota and
West Coast Predators.
Atom: OC Blades look the strongest
so far as teams opened up the first
day of play. Tour Venom, despite
losing to the Blades, also looked
strong in their win over St.Louis Tour
Blast.
Jr Semifinals:
In what could be a first, the top 4
seeds in the Jr division advanced to
the semifinals. All 4 had 4-0 records
in the first round.
#2 Mississaugua Hyper continued
their strong showing with a 4-1
victory over #3 Anaheim Mission
Bulldogs 83.
#1 Detroit Mission Hyper Stars faced
off against #4 Mission Empire
Snipers. It was a tight game from the
start, and very physical. Neither team
gave an inch and once again it took
overtime to produce a winner. With
the teams playing 3 on 3, Detroit
found the short side and ended the
Snipers chance for a Winters/Finals
double.
Tomorrow:
Jr. Final and Jr All Star game take
place at 2:15 and 5:00pm
respectively.
Varsity Cup, with 10 teams
competing this year, it should feature
some exciting games throughout the
rest of the tournament.
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