Littleton’s Mile High tourney a success T
By Matt Mackinder
he Littleton Hockey Association (LHA) hosted its 40th edition of the Mile High Thanksgiv- ing Day Tournament over the recent holiday at the Ice Ranch and Englewood’s South Suburban Ice Arena and Family Sports Center. Teams from all over the United States and Canada converged from Nov. 23-27 at the Midget Major AA, Midget Minor AA, Bantam AA and Pee Wee AA levels with the hopes of bringing home some hardware.
“The competition was really good,” said LHA tournament director Mark Stone. “I had a chance to watch most of the games and every team was competitive and everybody was having fun.”
Just one Littleton team took home a champi- onship, as the Bantam AA Hawks defeated the Boulder Bison, 1-0, in their title game. Niko Price scored the game’s lone goal 8:57 into the second period and Littleton goaltender Ben Rob- erts stopped all 10 shots he faced. Brady Dunn finished with 25 saves in goal for the Bison. Josh Fiegl from the Colorado Rampage led the Bantam AA division in scoring with six goals and 13 points in six games. Jake Dosen, from Arapahoe, also averaged better than two points per game with five goals and six assists in five games. Foothills goalie Nick Scott posted five straight wins in the tournament and suffered his only loss in the overtime semifinal defeat to Boulder.
The host Littleton Hawks were crowned champions of the Bantam AA division at last month’s Mile High Thanksgiving Day Tournament.
recorded a pair of assists and netminder Matt Smith turned aside 34 shots between the pipes. Noah Carter and Jimmy Morgan scored for the Hawks, and goalie Sam Harden made 20 saves.
Leading the way offensively in the Midget Ma- jor AA division were Morgan and Littleton team- mates J.J. Richardson and Josh Hart. Morgan trumped all goal-scorers in the division with eight and Richardson and Hart each posted 10 points over the weekend. Ryan Seltenreich registered four wins and
Mattijs Ossorio tallied the game-winner in Boulder’s semifinal win.
The Midget Major AA crown went to Foothills by way of a 4-2 victory over Littleton in the final. Logan Turner scored two goals in the win, while Nick Heffner and Conner Elliot scored one apiece. Brenden Smalley and Kyle Mair each
was the only goaltender to do so; he also rang up two shutouts. Dallas Oilers goalie Colton Mois- an had the highest save percentage at .962 and also earned three wins.
At the Midget Minor AA level, goaltender Ryan O’Dell and the Dallas Alliance blanked Littleton, 2-0, in the title game. O’Dell made an amazing 50 saves in the contest. Devin Howard scored early in the second
period and Danny Ryan’s empty-netter sealed the game for the Bulldogs. Connor Crory and Chase Kalter each had 10 points for the Hawks, while New Mexico Storm forward Cory King and Littleton’s Cody Oakes each tallied nine points. Littleton netminder Michael Tantillo earned two wins in the tournament and both came via shutouts.
The University of Denver Jr. Pioneers upend- ed the Weyburn (Saskatchewan) Young Fellows, 6-1, to win the Pee Wee AA championship. The Jr. Pioneers limited Weyburn to just seven shots on goal and Brian King had two goals and an assist for the victors.
“Overall, we had a lot of skilled teams, some very good coaching and some experienced clubs that made for a great weekend,” said Stone. “A lot of teams come to this tournament based on the reputation we’ve earned over the years,” he added. “We always have between 40-50 teams and it’s a lot of the same associations year after year. “This year, we had teams from Nebraska, Alaska, Idaho and Montana, and obviously a lot from right here in Colorado.”
RubberHockey.com 7
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20