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| June 20, 2003
Mile High Hockey
|  NARCh headed to the Bladium in Denver, Colorado as teams lined up for their last opportunities to qualify for the upcoming Finals @ TECO Arena.
We’ll start with the Mite Division, which featured the Bulldogs, Bladium, Greeley Griffins and N.Colorado Blast. The Blast would go through the round robin with a 3-0 record to advance to the Final. Their opponent would be the Greeley Griffins, who had gone 2-1 in the round robin, the highlight of which was a 4-3 win over the Bulldogs to catapult them into the Final. Greeley was trying to avenge a 5-2 opening night loss to the Blast. The two teams would play a highly entertaining up and down game, characterized by numerous odd man rushes for each squad. The Blast was holding on to a 5-4 lead until just under a minute remained. A Griffins player was able to backhand a rebound just past the goalie’s catch glove to tie it up and the rink erupted! In OT it was more of the same, odd man rushes for each side, with the Griffins having the best chance initially with a 2 on 1. The Blast would have a chance of their own shortly after and they’d convert, earning the Mite Championship with a 6-5 win.
The Squirts would head to the semifinals led by the top seeded Bulldogs; they would be joined by #2 N.Colorado Blast Black (who also went undefeated in pool play), #3 N.Colorado Blast Gold and #4 Raging Rebels.
The first match up would be the Bulldogs vs. Rebels. The Rebels had kept the first meeting close, dropping a 4-2 contest the day before. This time though, the Bulldogs would find their spots repeatedly as they cruised into the Final with a 10-2 win.
The Blast Black and Gold would then meet for both a spot in the Final and intra-organization bragging rights. While the Blast Black would be known more for their offense over the weekend, having scored 24 goals in their first 3 games, it’d be the defense that would be the difference in the semifinal. Once they gained a 1-0 lead it would be all they’d need as they would shutout the Gold offense and win by a final of 2-0.
The Final would be a hard fought contest, with each team content to play an up tempo north/south type of contest. Both the Bulldogs and Blast Black would continue their offensive show, but this time it would be the Bulldogs defense and goaltender who was just a touch better as they held off the Blast Black by a 5-4 score to claim the Squirt title.
The Pee Division would find the N.Colorado Blast Black as the top seed followed by the Vail Xplosion, N.Colorado Blast Gold and Team Hystik as we moved into the semifinals.
The Blast Black would have a tougher time in their 2nd match up with Hystik, but in end would prevail with a 4-2 victory. The second semifinal would also be a repeat match up between the Blast Gold and Xplosion. The Xplosion had won the first game and would keep things true to form as they rolled to a 7-3 victory.
Mike Lozano, NARCh Tournament Director, would call the Pee Wee Final the most entertaining game of the weekend. First, the Blast Black would jump out to a 3-0 lead but would watch it slowly slip away after some defensive mistakes. The two teams would end regulation tied at 4. After a 5-minute sudden death failed to produce a winner we headed to a 4-player shootout to decide the champion.
The two teams would play to a 1-1 tie after the first 4 shooters and we’d move on to a Sudden Death shootout. After a Vail player had a shot that squeaked by the Blast goalie, he had a piece of it, just not enough. It would now be up to the Blast Black to answer the goal or we’d finally have our champion. The shooter would come down and make a nice move on the forehand, but Top Goalie Courtney Drennan would do the splits and come up with the pad save to clinch the title!!
The Bantam’s would see the K-Tek Kondors take the high seed heading into the championship game where they would face the Vail Xplosion for the Championship. Vail was playing in their 2nd division of the weekend, having also played in the Pee-Wee’s. K-Tek would be the class of the field this weekend though, as they have been steadily improving over the past couple of seasons and they would keep the Xplosion at bay with a 6-2 victory.
It would be the K-Tek Kondors adding a Junior division title to their titles over the weekend. They would have to hold off their Bantam team though as the two teams split in the round robin, each winning one game. Going into their final game, the Kondors Jr had to hold their opponent to 2 goals or less as the Bantam’s had given up 14 for the event and the Jr’s were at 11. The Jr’s would post a shutout to clinch the win and the Junior title.
Next up, we travel to Moriches for a long weekend of hockey. Check the homepage for scores and photos.
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