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| June 13, 2003
By Jim Anderson
Northern Exposure
|  NARCh was back at the Amherst Pepsi Center in Buffalo, NY to host another regional qualifier for the upcoming 2003 NARCh Finals.
The talk before the regional centered on the Junior Division which would have the last 3 NARCh Champions. The Detroit Mission Stars, winners of the 2001 and 2002 Jr. titles at the Finals plus the '00 Bantam title, would be the favorites. Joining them would be the '02 Winternationals champion Mission Empire Snipers and the '03 Winternationals winners the newly sponsored Nike Buffalo Wings. The Kanata Krazy Kowboys would round out the division and were a quality Platinum team in their own right and were looking to gain some respect over the weekend.
Going into the first matchup between the Snipers and Stars, one would have expected a low scoring affair, as these 2 teams batted in MN to a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation before Detroit would go on to win in OT.
The Snipers would score first off a nice play by Gary Kull (check the Photos section to see him sliding into the boards). Detroit would answer back quickly however with 3 unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead. The Snipers would come back to tie the game at 3 before Detroit pulled ahead 4-3 and added an empty net goal to clinch the top seed and advance to the Finals. The Snipers would then face the Buffalo Wings on Sunday morning to see who would advance to the Final as both teams had beaten the Kowboys and lost to the Stars. The Snipers were still a bit stung from their loss to Buffalo at this year's Winternationals and finally had a chance for redemption. Rob Scheer and Mike Cianfrani led the Snipers with numerous offensive chances and Nike Wings goalie Dale Gerbetz played excellently in keeping the Wings in the game until the Snipers finally padded the lead late in the contest and advanced to the Final with a 5-2 win.
It would be Stars vs. Snipers rematch for the Jr. Final. This time it would be the Stars who would jump out early, to a 2-0 lead. Giving goaltender Steve Kampf a 2 goal cushion is typically a guaranteed win 99.99% of the time. For the 2nd time this weekend though, the Snipers would rebound from a 2 goal deficit to the Stars and tie the game at 2 in the 2nd half. The teams would remain tied through the remainder of regulation and once again these two would settle it in OT. It wouldn't take long this time as just over 90 seconds into the extra period, the Stars took advantage of an errant clearing pass and clinched the victory.
The Bantam division would also host its share of quality teams. The Tour Mavericks, who medaled at the '02 Winternationals and nearly came back from a 6-0 deficit to Honeybaked last year at the Finals, were in attendance along with Detroit Mission Bulldogs. The Mission Empire Snipers were there, well 5 of them at least as they would be missing some of their key players (Oliveri, Stahl and Mosenson). All 3 would advance to the semifinals along with the Oakville Coyotes 87 who would be the #2 seed. The first semifinal would pit the top seeded Snipers against the 4th seeded Mavericks. The Mavs had squeaked into the playoffs with a 1-2 record, beating DMB in their last round robin game. Since there semifinal loss in Detroit to Metro Storm, the Mavs had been searching for their game, and now it was finally coming back. The Snipers, led by Travis Bokina, would take the early lead. However having only 5 players the whole tournament, and with many seeing double duty as well, along with playing shorthanded for long stretches began to wear them down. It didn't help that they were playing one of the best conditioned teams in their division. The Mavericks spend quite a bit of time on dryland training and in the last 6 minutes of the game it made all the difference as they took the lead and held on for a 4-3 win.
Next up would be DMB and Oakville '87. DMB had won convincing over Oakville earlier in the tournament, 6-1, and was the favorite to advance. They would show that their loss earlier in the day to the Tour Mavericks was just a bump in the road as they cruised to an 8-0 win.
The Bantam Final would prove to be even more exciting than the Jr. OT thriller between the Stars and Snipers. As is typical of bantam division play, it was played at a high tempo, along with being quite physical along the boards. The two teams would battle over the 34 minutes of regulation, only to remain tied at 4. Next up would be 5 minutes of sudden death overtime; still no one could score that clinching goal, as both goaltenders played superbly. So after 39 minutes of hockey, the bantam final would be decided in a shootout. Each team's shooter would miss their first chance, after that DMB scored on their next 2 chances while the Tour Mavericks would only score 1 and find them in a score or go home scenario as their 4th and final shooter took his turn. He would make a strong move, but DMB's goaltender would make the stop and the Bulldogs would win the Bantam title in the shootout. You can view each round of the shootout by checking out the Photo and Video section from the Buffalo regional here http://narch.com/gallery/index.html?gallery=03_Qualifier_Buffalo,_NY.
In the Pee Wee division it would be the Kitchner Rage, Labeda Militia, Multiline Oakville Coyotes and Nike Buffalo Wings advancing to the semifinals. Kitchner had claimed the top seed in the early round and would meet the Wings in the first semifinal. The Rage had won the earlier meeting that weekend by a 5-2 score. The Wings would keep the game much closer this time though, and the Rage would be lucky to hold on as they won a tightly contested 2-1 game.
The Militia would meet Multiline in the next semifinal. For the Militia, they were improving with each game and had come a long way since their 6th place finish in Detroit just 2 weeks earlier. The Militia had also won their earlier meeting that morning, and would be looking to repeat the task and advance to their first NARCh final of the year. Multiline would break the shutout hex that goaltender Mike Ferguson had over them in the earlier game, as they would score 3 times in the semifinal. Labeda would just have too much offense in the end though as they would put 7 on the board and keep the Coyotes at bay while advancing to the Final.
In the Final, both Kitchener, led by High Scorer Alex Ernst and the Militia would continue to convert on their offensive chances and by the end of regulation they'd be tied at 5 and it would be the 3rd championship game so far that would be decided with bonus hockey. The Militia would score in the extra session to claim the first regional championship with a 6-5 win.
Last, but not least, was the Senior division. The Nike Buffalo Wings would have a formidable team and the hometown team would be trying to show that it once again will be the team to beat for the Platinum title at the Finals. Along with Division 1 ice hockey player Chris Welch, the Wings would have former AHL mainstay Craig Charron, who also played for the LA Blades in RHI's heyday, and Chris Palmer, who's been playing in the ECHL the past 2 season. Their main competition would be the Mission Snipers, who had a core bunch of the Jr. team (Cianfrani, Scheer, Thompson, Kull) along with long time goaltender Pete Pennecke and Jason Sessa, who played in England this past season after shuffling between the AHL and ECHL while under contract with the Leafs. The two teams would play to a 3-3 tie in their first match up and both would win their remaining games to setup a rematch in the Final. After some rough play early, which saw the ejections of 2 players from both the Snipers and Wings (and the Wings were already missing players at the start of the game), the two teams would settle down and play hockey. In the end, the Snipers were able to control the play a bit more and Pennecke would make the important saves as the Snipers would win the Senior division by a 4-2 score.
Next up, Denver as NARCh heads to the Bladium for another 2003 Regional.
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