Raleigh Recap

Lots of kids and parents kicking around with their TORHS 2Hot4Ice apparel on but none more noticeable than the Tour Lizard King moms sporting their "2Hot" T-shirts.  They must have all gotten the memo at the start of the day to wear the black and pink.  Joe gave kudos to the Lizard King program in an earlier blog and I concur.  They have  really stepped it  up as a major supporter of our program.  Thanks also goes out to the Charlotte Checkers who traveled south to Atlanta and north to Raleigh in consecutive T2H4I tournament weekends.  We are also hoping to see them in Richmond in 2 weeks. We really appreciate their support!  In the Men's Division, thanks needs to go out to Chris Street for making it possible to run this division by entering 2 Alkali Assault teams.  Chris  took a lot of heat last year within the industry for some issues he had with a former company he was running.  It would have been easy to fade into the sunset, but he has come back on his feet and no one gives us more support at the Adult Level.

Here's a division by division recap:

Cub (6u)  It's always great to see the little ones out there competing, and we won't miss an opportunity to provide them with exposure to tournament hockey any chance we get.  This weekend, we had two teams worth of players and with the help of Steve Werner, split them into a White and Blue team.  The first game was a bit lopsided so a trade was made for the "Championship" game which resulted in a closer contest. This division exemplifies the "its not always about winning" philosophy as every player had a great time just playing.

10u Mite  When you are a team that can compete with any team in the country in your age division, it's tough to find competition at regionals.  For that reason, the Carolina Force has been "forced" to play up all year, competing in the 12u division and holding their own.  This weekend, they did double duty as they once again proved to be a formidable team against older kids while also getting a chance to strut their stuff against their peers, cruising through the round robin in the Mite Division.  The Lizard Kings hung in there with them during the championship game, only being out-dueled 3-1.  John Rodger's Prime Time Dragons 8u team once again proved they can hang with the older kids, winning 2 games in the round robin, but it was Rodger's Ugly Pucklings team (comprised of players that were overlooked in tryouts) that made the biggest splash, taking out the Dragons Grey in the semi-final and losing out by a goal to Dragons Red who captured the Tier 2 Championship.

12u Squirt   A few surprise results in this division.  After going undefeated in the round robin, top seed Dragons Black was upset by the Tour Rattlers Orange in the tier 1 semi-final.  After opening the tournament with a 5-3 loss to the Speed, TC 2000 got stronger and stronger as the tournament went on, and was too much for the Rattlers to handle in the Tier 1 Final.  The Speed, after a couple of close losses in the round robin, rebounded to take home the Tier 2 Gold Trophy and medals.

14u Peewee

After going 4-0 during the round robin, the Dragons Black team was defeated by the young (all 99's) Purple Cobras in the Tier 1 Championship game.  These are both solid teams.  The Checkers also had a very strong tournament, before being beaten by the Purple Cobras in the semi-finals.  In Tier 2, The Speed took the title, beating the Assassins in the championship game.  On a sour note, this division had some of the chippiest  games, including the Tier 2 final game, in which suspensions were levied.  PLEASE NOTE:  Do not think that because it is the last game of the tournament that there won't be accountability for your actions.  Teams that have players that are issued game misconducts will be notified that these players will have to sit their next TORHS2Hot4Ice game in the next tournament that they play.

16u Bantam  This was our most evenly matched division with 3 teams tied after the round robin, and a coin-toss being necessary to break the tie between 2 of them.  The balance of this division was evident with players from teams that ended up in Tier 2 winning some of the individual awards.  Despite being a 14u team, the Alkali Assault 98's were able to beat their older Assault team for the Tier 1 championship.  Carolina Nightmares took home the Tier 2 title.

Adult  Some great games also in this division.  The Lakers who flew in from Chicago were eliminated by a tie-breaker.  The Assault White team avenged an early round defeat from the Comets to beat them in the Championship game.

As our last trip to Raleigh before the South Finals, we scoped out the building to see what improvements we could make to make this year's event even more special than last year's.  We are confident that you will be blown away by what we will be offering this year.  You won't want to miss this event!