Off To Nationals!

Hey guys so since I just posted a photography blog, it's time for a hockey topic! So we all know that hockey season is beginning to be pushed into the post season, and we all love that excitement that goes along with it. My team this past weekend went to the State Championships for Utah Tier II hockey. It consisted of four teams altogether: the Davis County Golden Eagles, the Park City Ice Miners, the Ogden Mustangs and my team, the Utah Jr. Grizzlies. This 'tournament' was double-elimination, and we had to play each team at least once. This tournament was all played in Park City, which was a ton of fun. So this post will be similar to my first L.A. post, where I describe each game we played.

Game #1: 

This game was played against the Park City Ice Miners (which included kids from my grade and eighth grade). So I knew all of their players and it was very fun to play against them. Since the last two games we played against them were close, the team and I were really nervous. I was personally worried our team wasn't going to show up and play at our top level that game, but I was wrong. We played really well, and we ended up winning 6-2. I had a great game, with two goals and an assist. So this game was sweet, and there were still games to come...

My goal vs. Park City>>>

Game #2: 

This game was against our nemesis, the Golden Eagles. This team has always gotten on my nerves, and are always a nuisance towards my team. This game was by far the most intense. The referees this game were absolutely horrendous, and by the end of the game, we ended up with 15 penalties. Over half of these were awful calls, and it was a very frustrating game. These awful calls were mainly because the head coach of the Eagles, Jim Mckenna, is the head of Utah's Referee Supervisor. So of course the refs wanted to call the ref towards their supervisor... Anyways, the game went into overtime at the score of 1-1, and the score was the same after that. So then came the shootout. The Eagles missed all five of their shots, and we made one. The shooters for my team were Tmac, Woo, Ammon and me. Ammon was the only one who scored... I missed my shot by an inch; I was going for top cheddar, but the puck came off of my stick weird... Either way, that was an intense and stressful game.

Game #3:

This game was boring because the team was absolutely horrendous. We played the Ogden Jr. Mustangs and beat them 17-1... I had two goals and an assist so that was good... Our team had three goals in the first period, eleven in the second and three in the third. Not too much to talk about here....

Game #4: Since we won all of our games, we had made it as the first seed, and we were in the championship. Unfortunately, we had to play the Golden Eagles: again. This time my team came out much harder, and we absolutely controlled the game. In the first period we scored two goals. During the second, we scored another three goals. They were completely on their heels and it felt great. They scored one in the third, but it didn't matter much. When that last buzzer sounded, joy was felt throughout the whole team. We won 5-1! It was a great feeling winning State Championships twice in a row. It was a great experience and now we gotta get ready for Nationals! Nationals this year ends up being in Salt Lake City, which is good but also sort of a bummer. But Nationals is Nationals, right? I can't wait, and I'll keep you updated!

State Champs! Photo creds to Mr. Jensen....