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Thursday, November 1, 2007
Breaking the Ice
Fort Worth, TX
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Area teams use preseason tournament to gear up for season
The Texas Star High School Fall Hockey Festival featured some of the top teams in the Varsity Gold and Silver divisions, and most coaches agreed that it was a great opportunity to evaluate depth, make a few lineup changes and gear up for the 2007/2008 season.
Colleyville Heritage went 2-1 and lost in the championship game of the Silver division tournament to Frisco, and coach Sean Brady said his team's performance was a big confidence builder, in spite of losing the final game.
“Overall, I think it went extremely well,” Brady said. “Obviously, I would have liked to win the final game there, but Frisco played better than us...This year is going to be different than last year. Last year we had a couple of very talented individuals, and I think this year, it is going to be more of a committee. We've got a lot of depth, but no superstars.”
Dustin White led the scoring for the Panthers with three goals while Mason Miller picked up two in the tournament.
Arlington Martin was one of the teams that lost to Heritage along the way, but the Warriors opened the tournament in style with a 5-3 victory against Frisco, the eventual champions.
Kyle Granby picked up a hat trick and an assist in that game, and Brett Jacobson also scored three goals in the tournament.
Martin coach Louie Greco said he feels his team learned a lot about itself in the tournament.
“We could have played a little bit better, but being the beginning of the year, it was pretty much what I expected,” Greco said. “We had a couple of injuries going in that I thought would affect us, but we did pretty much how I thought we would.
“Tournaments like this tell you a lot,” Greco said. “You have new JV players that you are moving up, so anytime you can get them some playing time against real varsity players before the season starts, that's a good thing.”
Mansfield went 2-1 in the Varsity Gold division tournament, losing to Flower Mound in the championship game. Mansfield had beaten Flower Mound earlier in the tournament.
“I was thrilled by the effort,” Mansfield coach Tim Madigan said. “We were a little rusty coming in, but all of our kids did a really good job and played really hard. The only thing I was concerned about in the tournament was the penalties we took.”
Mansfield picked up 12 penalties in its first game with Flower Mound and 10 more in its second game.
“Everybody wonders heading into the season how they are going to do and how they stack up against other teams,” Madigan said. “This was a good opportunity to get a couple of games under our belt and find out that, yeah, if we play our game, we can compete against these other guys, and I think it just gave us a lot of confidence.”
Madigan said he expects to have big seasons from Brian Young, Michael Zahner, Zach Nuss, Derek Caputo, and goalie Michael Stabb.
Keller also had a strong showing in the Varsity Gold division, going 2-1 and winning the Consolation bracket by defeating Marcus, a team that it beat twice in the tournament.
“I think we had a pretty good weekend,” coach Stan Tugolukov said. “As a coach, I see that tournament as a chance for us to polish our lines and get some experience before the season starts. It was really more like exhibition games in the NHL.”
The Indians got two goals each from Adrien Schlueter and Igor Mityushin.
“These tournaments are necessary, because we get a chance to face other Gold Division teams,” Tugolukov said.
“Without those games, I would have no information on the other teams at all, so being able to play in three competitive matches, it is a big help.”
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