Coyotes Cup Festival Hits on All Cylinders


Five Arizona teams capture championship banners at the holiday showcase By Shane Dale


chances. “They had one shift where they were able to


F


or the first time in its 13-year history, the Coyotes Cup tournament was wrapped


around a single weekend: Dec. 29-Jan. 1. Tour- nament director Bob Strong said it was so well received that he plans to make it a regular oc- currence. “We had a higher participation in terms of the


overall number of teams and a higher participa- tion of out-of-town teams,” he said. “We had sort of a nice mix of champions. We had some local teams, and we had a Canadian team and some other teams from out of town win.” Strong, who runs the Sonoran Youth Hockey


League, said the spike in attendance from last year’s tourney was largely due to the weekend games, which were held at all three Polar Ice facilities and the Ice Den. “I thought


it was im- portant for parents trying to take time off of work,” he said. “I think that really helped, so we’re going to do the same thing next year.” Strong said


he’s received nothing but positive feed- back from the participants of this year’s tournament, which featured 74 teams in 12 divisions. “Every single player gets a participation gift,


and they enjoyed that,” he said. “We also had probably about 800 people go to the Phoenix Coyotes-Boston Bruins game (at Jobing.com Arena) the night before the tournament started. Even the feedback about the officiating has been positive.” Here’s a rundown of the Arizona-based cham- pions of this year’s Cup:


Midget 18 AA: Arizona Hockey Union Knights 16 AAA Considering that his squad went 0-3-1 in


its previous tournament, Jeff Alexander was pretty content with a division championship this time around. “We don’t really set our expectations; we just


look to improve from the last tournament to the next,” said Alexander, coach of the Knights’ 16 AAA team. The Knights lost their first contest of the


tourney, but ran the table the rest of the way, atoning for its only defeat by beating the Arizona High School Hockey Association Premier squad, 4-2, in the final game. Alexander said the line of Alex Aguirre,


Quinn Thibeault and Josh Smith set the tone in the championship match by maintaining the puck and coming up with a number of scoring


Arizona Hockey Union’s Squirt A team powered its way to the championship in its division at the Sonoran-hosted Coyotes Cup tournament, which was held over the holidays at all three Polar Ice facilities and the Ice Den.


maintain pressure for a minute, minute and a half,” he said. Goaltender Aaron Zavesky and forward


Hank Bill also came up big throughout the tour- nament, Alexander said.


Bantam: Phoenix Firebirds 98 Dilemma: Alex Hicks was coaching two


teams in the Bantam division: his Bantam 98s and Pee Wee 99s. Solution: Hicks would coach the 99s in the


round-robin portion, while assistant John Kosobud would lead the 98s. And should they meet again in the championship game - which, of course, they did - Hicks and Kosobud would switch places.


Hicks was on


the winning side for both head-to- head matchups. After the Pee Wees beat the Bantams, 3-0, in the round-robin contest, the Ban- tams rebounded with a 2-0 win in the title match. Both teams went 4-1 in the tourna- ment - their only loss to each other. “It’s a good


group of kids, so


it’s well deserved,” Hicks said of his champion 98s.


Austin Wilks and Cole Cunningham


scored in the championship game, and goalten- der Josh George earned the shutout. “Both of (the 98) goalies, Josh and Barrett


Rosser, played really well,” Hicks said. “It was probably the best they’ve played all season.” Other top performers included 98 forward


Westin Becker, who scored five goals. “He had a tournament where he kind of showed everybody his potential,” said Hicks.


Pee Wee B: Phoenix Firebirds Squirt AA Going up against older kids and with their


head coach out of town, the Desert Youth Hockey Association’s (DYHA) Squirt AA team stepped up big time. “I knew we’d be a more skilled team, but the


physicality, size and strength of playing in the Pee Wee division I thought was going to be a challenge for us,” said assistant coach Tim New- lin, who acted as the team’s head coach for the tournament. “The kids had to change their whole mindset, and that’s what we did to ultimately win the championship.” The Firebirds went 4-1 in their division, los-


ing only to the Channel Island (Calif.) Riptide, 5-0, in a round-robin game. They came back to defeat the Riptide, 4-2, in the championship contest. Newlin credited Jonathan Szekeres,


RubberHockey.com 13


DYHA’s backup goaltender who didn’t play in the championship game but beat Arizona Hockey Union, which defeated the Firebirds in a Thanksgiving showcase, 2-1, in an earlier Coy- otes Cup contest. “It was a very balanced effort by all the kids throughout the tournament,” said Newlin.


Squirt A: Arizona Hockey Union Knights After losing two games in the round-robin


portion of the tournament, the Knights won a three-way tiebreaker that allowed them to ad- vance to the championship game against one of


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