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| February 25, 2003
By Jim Anderson
Winternationals Pro Division Wrap Up
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“The Mudcats are a team in every sense of the word. We consist of players that on paper should not win, but we prove that in the game of hockey Team’s win. Each one of our guys knows their role and they play it knowing that the Mudcats will get the glory”. Chad Seibel – Tour Mudcats on why the Mudcats have become one of, if not the premier team in the PRO division over the last 12 months.
NARCh Pro saw some new faces at Winternationals. The Mission Snipers, consisting of many players who have won NARCh Platinum titles, and Team Rink Rat which meshed some familiar names (Szabo, Yingling) with some new east coast talent. The Rats also provided one of the more exciting preliminary games as they skated to an 8-8 tie with Mission DNA.
Tour Mudcats, Mission DNA and Tour Labeda all advanced to the semifinals and were joined by the Rinkside Rockets, who won the goals against tiebreaker vs. Team Rink Rat. Knowing they had to win to advance to the semifinals, the ‘Rats pulled their goalie in a desperate attempt to upset the Mudcats in their last round robin game with quite a few minutes remaining and down 7-5 at the time.
The first semifinal pitted the top seeded Tour Mudcats against the Rinkside Rockets. The Mudcats had beaten the Rockets on Friday by a 5-2 score and the Rockets surely had an upset on their mind. However the Mudcats opened up a 3 goal lead early led by Ron Tracy’s two goals. Rinkside closed to within 3-1; however Tracy scored 2 goals, 15 seconds apart to essentially put the game out of reach early. He would score one more early in the 2nd half to give him 5 for the game as the Mudcats won easily 10-2 and advanced to the Championship game for the 3rd consecutive time.
The second semifinal featured Mission DNA, which was combination of the Mission and DNA teams from the 2002 NARCh Finals and Tour Labeda, who hadn’t reached the Championship game since the 2001 Finals where they beat Team Mission in OT. There wasn’t much different than the first semifinal as one team gained control early and were able to control the game. Mission DNA opened up a 3-0 lead before Tour Labeda would get on the board. Mission DNA would add 3 more in the second half to advance to the Championship game with a 6-1 victory. Having lost a heartbreaker to the Mudcats in the 2002 Winternationals and missing key players in Minnesota this past July, is it time to retool? Team leader Rob Chornmud says no, although as the coach of Team USA this year he plans to keep an eye out for any talent that may have slipped through the cracks and he is happy with the play of goalie Brett Leggat.
Sunday night, Crystal Palace is packed, filled with fans waiting for the Championship game between Tour and Mission. Sponsors and NARCh staff are tossing items to the crowd, the bar is packed and we’re ready to go.
Tour would get on the board first, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by CJ Yoder and Dan Costanza. Mission would cut the lead in half only 8 seconds later though as Joe Cook found the net for DNA. Before the half was over though, Jason Allan and Jay Mazer would score for the Tour Mudcats, who seemed to capitalize on their chances and often just after goaltender Jamie Buffalino made a key stop, and they went into the 2nd half with a 3 goal lead and likely a sigh of relief for not having to play catch-up for once in a Championship game. Costanza scored his 2nd of the game early and the Mudcats were up 5-1 and it looked like the rout was on. Mission DNA was far from finished though and they controlled the play for several minutes. Ziggy Marszalek scored early to close the score to 5-2. Despite putting 20 shots on net in the 2nd half, and 36 for the game, they just couldn’t solve Buffalino, who appeared to be playing one of his best games ever at NARCh. DNA would get a final goal by Gerry St.Cyr with 1:18 remaining to close within a pair until Jason Allan iced it with and empty net goal and sealing the 6-3 win.
It’s early in the year; however with appearances in the last 3 NARCh Pro Championship games, the Tour Mudcats are the team to beat heading into the 2003 Finals in Estero, Florida as they try to add the NARCh Finals title to their collection.
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