Another Season Recap

Here's another recap covering our Peewee B American Federal Bank team. Thanks to the Coaches for sending this in. Congratulations on a great year!

The 09-10 East Grand Forks American Federal Pee Wee “B” hockey was a great team. This was a team of players working together as a “team” in the true sense of the word, as there were no true standouts. They worked together as a group and when one was down someone else would pick up the slack. They were a strong team from the start and only improved from there. This team would go far and do very well in the season, tourneys, and deep into the play-offs.

With only three returning players; from a Third place at state the season before, there were a lot of questions to who would be the leaders of the team. This was a team of good skaters and not a lot of size they needed to learn to control the play early or be run over. With good goaltending, strong defense, and timely scoring the AFB went on to great things.

In tournament play, we learned a lot about our identity as a team. In a down year in the district, this is where we would find our competition and hone our skills. In our early home tourney, in early Dec., we played very strong, but ran into a very good Winnipeg team in pool play. This left us with a third place finish and a lot of confidence going into the season. In Jan. we played teams: from Blaine, Elk River, and Stillwater; all very close, but putting together a complete team weekend to take first place! We hoped to continue this run later on in the month and participating in a Roseau tourney. We again played very well, but got a little cocky in the final round robin team of Mesabi East. Who had thoughts of revenge on their minds, after being beaten soundly by the AFB the previous season at Regions. We gave away a big third period lead and were forced into a third place game. Losing to Mesabi East showed us that we could never let up, not even for a minute.

After going undefeated in District 16 play, the AFB went into the District Tournament the no. 1 seed we played two very tough games with Bemidji and Red Lake Falls. By learning the lessons from earlier in the season we came out on top, District 16 champions! With high hopes, we went into the West Region Tournament in Crookston, hoping to earn a trip to State in Roseau. We were upset early by a gritty Brainerd team 2-1 and were manhandled by a great Sauk Rapids team 9-0.We thought our season was over and the final round robin game against Moorhead would be it for the year. We thought wrong. We learned that we needed to win by two goals and we could advance to the Regional Championship. We had beaten and tied them earlier in the season; in the earlier tie we were down 2-1 and badly outplayed; but with our own gritty performance we managed to tie the game with only two seconds left in the game. We were very confident we could win the Regional game. Little did we know that this would be our game of the season. We started early going up 1-0 at the end of one period, but the ice was much tilted to our end, and by the end of the second period we were down 2-1. Our heads were down but our spirit was not broken. We spoke in the locker room that we did not want our season to end here. We told ourselves that it was only three goals and we could go on to the championship. With a goal early in the third, one in the middle, and our goalie at the door to be pulled we scored the third goal we went up 4-2 and won, all though we were outshot 42-18 we just wanted it more. We went on to the championship against Little Falls. What we saw was like looking in a mirror. It was back-and-forth the whole game, the score was 0-0 late, and with a late goal by Little Falls ended our hopes of a State berth. Even though it was a loss we all knew we left it all on the ice.

With a record of 37-7-1, a tourney championship, undefeated district play, and a District 16 Championship; the EGF AFB demonstrated what being a team was all about. There were no stars on this team; only players playing for each other. They won when they were supposed to and won even in their losses. These players will go on to better things; Josh Weber, Ethan Kringlen, Mavryck Blake, Andrew Knopp, Wyatt Swanson, Tommy Pace, Casey Swanson, Nathan Heisler, Brady McDonald, Levi Pesch, Alex Heisler, Braden Shea, Jake Olson, Nick Hovde, Broc Helgeson, and Dryden Dragich may not have made it to State, but will forever be champions.