2008 USA Hockey Championships at Ice House

[DarkStar50 679]

The Ice House in Hackensack, NJ will be holding Tier I and Tier II USA Hockey National Championships for Peewee and Bantam from April 2 to April 6. We will have over 48 teams from around the country playing here. There is an opening ceremonies event featuring Mike Eruzione, Pat Dapuzzo has secured the Stanley Cup for the ceremony and even Gary Bettman will be on hand. We have been super busy in the Pro Shop getting ready for this Super Site event. It will be pretty crazy.

[DarkStar50 679]

The 2008 Championships ended last Sunday. It was a great event. The hockey was awesome among all Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams. Here are some photos.

Shattuck's St Mary's vs Anaheim Ducks, Tier 1 Bantam

Shoot-out

Get your picture taken with the Cup!

Opening Ceremonies

Team mascot for Bud Bakewell Bruins

[Cobra2717 0]

Awesome! We had the Midget Nationals here in Buffalo at the the Amherst Pepsi Center. Great hockey.

[DarkStar50 679]

I forgot to mention that Mario Lemieux was here with his son on the Pittsburgh team, Nylander was here with his son from Team Maryland, and Ron Duguay with his son from South East Florida. Brandon Dubinsky was here from the Rangers. His dad coached one of the Alaska teams, Tier 2 Bantam. Finally, Mike Comrie's nephew was the goalie for the Tier 1 Peewee champs, LA Selects. Mike brought his friend, Hillary Duff! No make-up = not impressed!!

[LkptTiger 1]

At least the PeeWee team was decent...LA's Tier I Midget Major team looked like they belonged in the Tier II Minor tournament.

[LkptTiger 1]

I used the word "decent" to imply that the AAA 18U team was, in fact, "not decent." I never said the PeeWee team wasn't anything more than competent...my commentary was directed toward the brutal nature of the older team.

[cris8 0]

Isn't Ron Duguay married to a supermodel? Was she there too?

Anyway, great pictures. Wish I found time to go.

[JR Boucicaut 3799]

Kim Alexis.

Ha, Pete, you had Rochester Rattlers there...should've kicked all of those kids out of your shop!

[DarkStar50 679]

I was too busy selling t-shirts, sweat shirts and other event stuff to get in the shop. The first day I worked from 7am to 10pm selling. It was nuts.

The LA Tier 1 Peewee team was led by Bryan Williams, speed to burn. Honeybaked had steamrolled to the Final and then fell behind 1-0. It was like CCCP. Honeybaked had never been behind all tourney. HB tied it but LA won in OT. In the Tier 1 Bantam, Little Caesars mauled everyone and won 2-0 over Chicago Mission in the final. LC had their entire coaching staff fired mid-season since parents on the third line complained about ice time their sons were not getting. When the owner's grandson is one of those third liners, you are history. Too bad a national championship isn't good enough for some parents. BTW, the coaches stayed on right through the championship game before leaving the team. They have already been hired by Compuware. All you Michigan guys can fill in all the details I missed or am wrong about. The five families of Detroit hockey- Little Caesars, Compuware, Honeybaked, Victory Honda, and Belle Tire. Crazy stuff.......

[hellkitty 0]

I just played in the Women's Nationals in West Chester, PA a couple weeks ago with my team. We came in 3rd in our division and losing to the eventual national champions too. There's always next year.

[DarkStar50 679]

Did you hear about the combined 15 overtime periods at your tourney on championship Sunday? The first game went 8 overtimes(10 minute OT). The game started at 8 am and ended at 12:15 pm. Another final game had 4 OTs and another had 3 OTs! The women had some tournament!

The atmosphere at these events is great. There is such a buzz in the building and the hockey is fantastic. Some of these Bantam Tier 1 teams could smoke the local HS teams easily!

[shooter27 116]

It seems like USA Hockey has done a great job improving these Nationals over the past 10 years or so. I played in the Tier 1 Bantam Nationals around '96, when it was just PeeWee, Bantam, and Midget, before they split into U12, U14, U16, U18.

From the looks of it they've added more teams (back then there were only 10) and I like the fact that they've added a quarterfinal round as well, back then it was only semis and finals. The other thing I like is how they moved the finals to a separate day. Back then we played the semis in the morning and the finals in the evening, both on Sunday. It always felt like a National Finals should be the only game played on Sunday.

[lotus 2]

So that's what everyone was talking about as I got ready for my rec league game there on the 7th....haha...

Teaches me to just skim these forums.

[Cobra2717 0]

I used the word "decent" to imply that the AAA 18U team was, in fact, "not decent." I never said the PeeWee team wasn't anything more than competent...my commentary was directed toward the brutal nature of the older team.

agreed. I only had a chance to go on that Thursday, and the only teams I was impressed with was Belltire and Shattuck.

[hockeydawg44 0]

Did you hear about the combined 15 overtime periods at your tourney on championship Sunday? The first game went 8 overtimes(10 minute OT). The game started at 8 am and ended at 12:15 pm. Another final game had 4 OTs and another had 3 OTs! The women had some tournament!

Actually that wasn't the women's tournament that was the girl's tournament. Still some great hockey though, too bad I couldn't stay for the whole 8 OT game. Heard it was great, those kids must have been dead after that lol

[forbs02 20]

I just played in the Women's Nationals in West Chester, PA a couple weeks ago with my team. We came in 3rd in our division and losing to the eventual national champions too. There's always next year.

I was playing there too... what division were you in?

[Hockey DeVoTee 1]

I was there with my daughter as well. she plays for the Flames U14.

[hellkitty 0]

I just played in the Women's Nationals in West Chester, PA a couple weeks ago with my team. We came in 3rd in our division and losing to the eventual national champions too. There's always next year.

I was playing there too... what division were you in?

I was in the A division with Assabet. What were you in? I see that the Assabet girls really killed it again this year winning 3 national championships.