NAPHL SHOWCASE CHAMPIONS

Rick McConnell could not be more thrilled for his hockey team. Although it has been a tough season in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League, things got as rosy as a Detroit Red Wings home jersey on the afternoon of Feb. 20. Playing at the Buffalo Wild Wings Arena in Troy, Mich., just north of Detroit, McConnell’s Pilot Mound Hockey Academy Buffaloes got two goals and two assists from Ryder Stimson, and a 32-save masterpiece from Piet Mierau to beat the Texas Warriors from Dallas, 5-2, to claim the North American Prospects Hockey League’s U16 Showcase Championship. “We went 3-0 in the round-robin and won all three of our games fairly handily,” said Coach McConnell. “We played some pretty good hockey and ended up playing a really tough team from Utah called the Weber Mustangs in the semi-final and we won that win in a shootout – I think it went 10 rounds – we played an excellent hockey game to beat that team and get to the final.” The Buffaloes were the only Canadian team that participated in the NAPHL season in 2022-23. U16 and U18 club and prep school teams from all across the United States make up the bulk of a league that is run by the highly regarded junior loop, the North American Hockey League. This year, the Buffaloes played a major NAPHL tournament in Dallas, but had their event in Minneapolis cancelled by a terrible winter storm. From Feb. 17-20, they played the Showcase Championship against 15 of the top U.S. teams and went on a roll. PMHA opened with a decisive 5-0 win over the St. Viator Hockey Club from Chicago as Zane Price had two goals and Jake Brown, Beau Murray and Jack Smith added singles. Mierau made 17 saves to record the shutout. In Game 2 of the preliminary round, the Buffaloes beat the Clearwater Ice Storm from Clearwater, Fla., 4-1 as captain Sam Takahashi had a pair of goals, Brendan Hurley had a goal and an assist and Owen Stewart added a single. Quinn Burfoot made 22 saves to get the victory in net. In their final game of the round-robin, the Buffaloes shut out the Texas Jr. Brahmas from North Richland Hills, Tex., 3-0. The Buffaloes outshot the Brahmas 77-8 as Smith, Price and Rachlan Hay scored the goals and Mierau claimed another shutout. That win sent PMHA to the playoffs. However, the win over Texas ended at 11:40 p.m. on the 19th and the team had to play its semifinal at 7 a.m. on the 20th, the final day of the championship. No matter. After a long, hard, gritty effort, the Buffaloes beat the heavily favoured Weber Mustangs from Ogden, Utah, 5-4 in what turned out to be a 10-round shootout. Murray scored two goals, both in the third period, and added an assist while Brown and Smith had a goal and an assist each as 60 minutes settled nothing. In the shootout, Stewart scored the winner as netminder Mierau was sensational during the game-ending exhibition of skill. Ultimately, Mierau made 28 saves during regulation time and OT and then eight more stops in the shootout to send the Buffaloes to the final. “The game was played at seven o’clock in the morning and the kids were up at 4:30 a.m. despite a late start the night before,” said McConnell. “But even though it was at seven in the morning, it was the best hockey game my kids played all year. We had to be at our best to beat the team we played, but we got a strong performance from everybody throughout the lineup. I was really proud of them.” In the final, the Buffaloes met the highly regarded Texas Warriors from Dallas and while it was a tight affair for two periods, PMHA prevailed. “We had our hands full with that team,” McConnell said. “It was a close game until the last three or four minutes and we scored an empty netter to put it away. “It was an excellent experience. Some of the kids came to me and said, ‘Coach, we've never been in a final before, let alone won a championship.’ It was a big deal in the U.S. and it’s already helped me recruiting. I’ve had a number of boys from the U.S. text me and congratulate me and ask me about our program so the win has definitely opened a door. “I was really proud of our whole group. We played our best hockey of the year for five games that weekend. It was a fantastic weekend.”