Havasu Venue was outstanding for teams

Tight games, overtime and fun for all

RECOGNIZED AND HONORED

REACHING AND ACHIEVING

8u Division

Champion - Prescott Storm

Most Valuable player - Noah Sczesny

Oustanding offensive - Nieman Ham

Outstanding defensive - Hunter Paulson

Outstanding goalie - Sarah Jacobelli

10uA Division

Champion - Eschelon Yuma Blaze Black

Most Valuable player - Logan Estes

Outstanding offensive - Ryan Lakey

Outstanding defensive - Gavin Peterson

Outstanding goalie - Garrett Ruby

10uB Division

Champion - Eschelon Yuma Blaze Red

Most Valuable player - Madison Ewald

Outstanding offensive - Tanner Park

Outstanding defensive - Connor O'Brian

Outstanding goalie - Jovan Cramer

12u Division

Champion - Casey's Crushers Blue

Most Valuable player - Cameron Urlocker

Outstanding offensive - Clint Tapsell

Outstanding defensive - Morgan Taylor

Outstanding goalie - Kevin Mooney

14uA Division

Champion - Casey's Crushers

Most Valuable player - Brenden Bartley

Outstanding offensive - Zach Estes

Outstanding defensive - Chris Gillespie

Outstanding goalie - Jimmy Curley

14uB Division

Champion - Prescott Storm

Most Valuable player - Steve Rubio

Outstanding offensive - Cooper King

Outstanding defensive - Ben Deckey

Outstanding goalie - Jay Knapp

 

 

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Springtime in Havasu

great energy, great fun

The IHAAZ qualifier series rolled through Lake Havasu and rekindled the great memories of qualifiers that were hosted there back in the early 00's.  Once again it was a wonderful event to bring families and the children closer together by engaging in healthy competition with others and bringing out the best in our kids and their coaches.  With a breathtaking backdrop spectrum of majestic mountains, kissed with deep purples, blues and indescribable beauty,  with wildflowers and cactus blooming with effervescent joy, Lake Havasu took us all on a heavenly journey that will implore us to come back again and again.

 

8u Division

An event that captured the hearts of everyone and inspired even the hardest cynics of defeat, goalie Noah Sczesny and his band of Lake Havasu brothers, showed the hockey faithful, that yes indeed, the will to win and triumph can be the most lethal form of achievment known to mankind.  So it was that Yuma Blaze dispatched the Havasu Dust Devils in their first meeting 4-1.  But it was in the Semi-final, when these two teams met again, that many witnessed a game and an outcome that will be spoken about in many get togethers and bar-be-cues in the future.  Yuma Blaze had their hands completely full with Havasu's dogged determination to not go away. Blaze's excellent forward, Brendan Geren, scored what many believed to be the game winning goal for Yuma in waning minutes of regulation play, until Havasu's Max Warner, put in the game tying goal to send the game into a 5 minute sudden death overtime.  After no score in overtime, there was the 4 player shootout.  Both teams traded goals until teams were faced with a sudden death shootout.  After 7 rounds of sudden death shootout action, it was Havasu's Max Warner scoring and the dominating Noah Sczesny stopping Blaze's last attempt that gave Havasu a deliriously joyous upset win over the Yuma Blaze.  The Blaze's goalie, Nicholas Johnson, never gave up, even though it would have been very easy to call it a day and was every bit as determined for victory.  Both teams put everything out on the floor and no coach or parent had virtually any adrenalin left to get up out of their seat.  And while it was an excellent Prescott Storm attack that ended the magnificent run of the Dust Devils 7-1 in the championship game, it signaled to the hockey world that these Havasu youngsters fought for each other and stood up to extreme adversity.

 

10u Division

The Eschelon Yuma Blaze Black again showed no signs of slowing down, coming down the back straightaway towards state finals, with a dominant undefeated effort against the field. The Blaze did, however, get a bit of a game from the Prescott Storm as the Storm's Jimmy Brown (2 goals) and Nick Bragg (2 assists) led their team to a respectable 3-6 loss against a Yuma Black team that is loaded from the top to the bottom of their roster. The top 3 goalies were only separated by 2 percentage points as top 'A' goalie Garrett Ruby ended up at .8333, Jake Morales at .8235 and Jovan Cramer at .8148.  An example of Yuma's domination of the scoring charts, as a team, their 18 assists were by far the most seen in quite some time.  It was Yuma Black's scoring dynamo, Logan Estes, who not only garnered the most assists (5) for his team in the 10u division, but ended up putting up the most assists (5) in the 12u division as well for an incredible total of 16 points between the 2 divisions.  Eschelon Yuma Blaze Red topped the Havasu Dust Devils 2-0 off of Yuma Red's Seth Schlamann's 2 goals which was all that was needed in their 2-0 win while takin' care of business for a 10u 'B' championship.

 

12u Division

The Once again, the Crushers Blue were without their scoring leader Alex MacDonald, and as before at the Yuma qualifier, Crushers Bobby Curley elevated his game so that his 4 goals in the championship game against the Prescott Storm was just what the doctor ordered for a 5-3 qualifier championship win.  Crushers goalie, Kevin Mooney, was stellar in his gate keeping duties by turning away 33 shots in the championship game alone.  It was the earlier game between the Eschelon Yuma Blaze Black 10u squad and the Prescott Storm that raised the temperature of all involved.  The game was no gimme for the Storm as they had to pull all the tricks out of their bag in order to get the victory over the Blaze Black.  The Blaze Black had an incredible effort from their 2 go-to warriors Logan Estes (3 assists) and Spencer Hall (3 goals) as they came up just short 4-6 in a very impressive game considering the Blaze Black were playing up an age division.

 

14u Division

The 14u division was again, the closest and most exciting matchup of teams in the entire qualifier.  It featured last second goals, intense defense and heartbreaking last second losses as well as exhilirating come-from-behind victories that has made this division, one that no one wants to miss.  One of the most surprising events to see happen was the absolute whipping that the Prescott Storm took out on the Rollerplex Panthers in round-robin play 10-2. A Panther 14u team has never been subjected to this kind of a pounding before.  Even the Sharp Shooters had to put all they had on the table before tying the eventual 'B' finalist, Yuma Blaze Red, 4-4.  And, as what has been evident in recent qualifiers, the non-metro programs have been increasingly elevating their games beyond the reach of the Phoenix metro programs.  It was all Prescott Storm in the 14u 'B' championship game with their scoring leader, Steve Rubio, putting up 3 goals and 1 assist and a tremendous goalie effort from Jay Knapp as the Storm took the championship 5-2.

The 14u 'A' championship finale had all the trappings of a big time event.  2 outstanding coached teams from 2 stellar programs going toe to toe.  Yuma Blaze Black outshot the Casey's Crushers 30-14 but it was the Casey's Crushers who shut the door on the Blaze scoring opportunities when it mattered most as their goalie, Jimmy Curley faced his 30 shots from one of the hottest and most lethal scoring teams in the entire state.  And it was rather surprising to find the hero of the game turned out to be a rather unheralded scoring threat from the Casey's Crushers by the name of Brendan Bartley who absolutely lit up the crowd with his ultra sharp, teeth rattling slap shots from the outside angles that had Blaze Black in awe as Bartley's 2 goals were the difference maker for a Casey's Crusher championship victory over the Eschelon Yuma Blaze Black 3-2. 

 

 

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