T-Birds’ 18s off to Tier I national tournament J


By Adam Dunivan


ake Slizewski single-handedly kept the Centennial State from being shut out of


the upcoming USA Hockey Boys Tier I Na- tional Tournament. OK, so it wasn’t his effort alone that put


the Colorado Thunderbirds’ 18U AAA team on top in the division championship, but his late heroics on March 4 did deserve the dog-pile treatment that he got. Funny thing was, after Slizewski scored


the game-winner in triple overtime to beat the Dallas Stars AAA team, 5-4, he was about the last one in the Big Bear Ice Arena to realize what exactly happened. “The place kind of erupted,” he said. “I


going into the game that the Stars had taken two (divisions) and a third one was still in progress, so we knew we needed to halt that streak,” the former minor league official said. “We didn’t want the clean sweep happening. “It was a very intense, thrilling moment,


and from my vantage point I was just so happy for the boys because they’ve worked so hard this year.” The triumph completed a five-game


shot, but I didn’t see it go in. I just heard people and went towards my team, and every- one just started jumping on me. “It was definitely exhausting, but it was prob-


Members of the Thunderbirds’ 18U AAA team celebrate their national tour- nament berth after Jake Slizewski put home the winning goal in the third overtime of the Rocky Mountain District Tier I championship game earlier this month at Big Bear Ice Arena. Photo/YSPN.com


ably one of the best games I’ve played in. I’ve been in championship games before, but not in a district one. With nationals on the line, it was pretty excit- ing.” The T-Birds’ 18Us were the state’s last hope


for a representative at nationals, as the Stars had captured the Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget Minor divisions with championship wins. And they had to work hard to ensure Dallas


didn’t sweep. Colorado was down 4-2 entering the third period, but Eric Killam and Oliver Knauer scored goals to tie the game and send it to over- time. One overtime came and went, and a second,


and 9:50 went off the clock in the third before Slizewski struck. “There was a faceoff in our zone and we cleared


it to the other end on net,” he said. “Their goalie played the puck a lot the whole game, and he passed it up to one of their defensemen, and he kind of fumbled it and my linemate,Mitch Bai- ley, intercepted it to give us a 2-on-1. We were just firing everything at the net, so that was my first thought.” His first reaction turned out to be the best, giv-


ing first-year coach Paul DePuydt the ultimate satisfaction. As the only Tier I boys team left from Colorado to have a shot at nationals, which will be held in Buffalo, N.Y., from March 28-April 1,


stretch in which the Thunderbirds outscored their foes, 24-8. One of those wins came against the Colorado Rampage, which had beaten them out last month for the Tier I


state championship. “Redemption was the theme of that game,


and we outplayed them,” Slizewski said. “I felt like that was a do-or-die game; it was


kind of like we were in the championship already, which I think helped us win (in the end).” The Rocky Mountain RoughRiders’ 16U team


came the closest to joining the Thunderbirds with a nationals bid, falling 3-0 in its championship game. The Thunderbirds’ 12Us went 1-2 in the region-


al tournament, as did the 14U T-Birds. The 16U Thunderbirds went 2-1-1, while the 15U T-Birds finished 1-1-1. The 16U Rampage wrapped up regionals at 2-


1; the 18U Rampage at 2-2. The RoughRiders’ 14U squad went 0-3, and the 18U Pikes Peak Miners finished at 1-2.


RubberHockey.com 9


DePuydt couldn’t have been more proud. “It was one of those things where we knew


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