River East Kodiaks hold on to title in Texas

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This article was published 27/01/2015 (4230 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A northeast Winnipeg high school found itself defending its title against a local rival in the final of a Texas tournament.

The River East Kodiaks successfully defended their Texas Star Winter Classic championship in Dallas, Texas, against their northeast neighbours, the Miles Macdonell Buckeyes, over the weekend of Jan. 17 to 19.

The Kodiaks, who won the championship in 2014, and the Buckeyes faced off not once but twice in Dallas. The Kodiaks beat the Buckeyes 5-1 in the round robin Jan. 18, finishing their four games undefeated to place first. The Buckeyes came in second, winning three of their four round robin games.

The two Winnipeg teams met once again the next morning for the Tier 1 championship.

Despite a hard-fought early effort from the Buckeyes, the Kodiaks won 4-0.

“Their goalie played well,” Kodiaks coach Ben Zajac said of the final. “And their best player was missing so that didn’t help them any.”

“River East, our boys really get up to play them,” Gordon Fritzsche, acting Buckeyes coach, said. “They’re the neighbourhood rival. There were some times momentum could have turned, but we didn’t capitalize on it.”

“The games were pretty good,” Steven Paulley said of the tournament as a whole. Paulley, a 17-year-old left-winger for the Kodiaks, was the tournament scoring champion, with four goals and seven assists for 11 points. “The teams were alright, but we were the dominant.”

“It was good for our kids to play some different teams,” Zajac said.

The Kodiaks handily beat two teams from Colorado, besting the Arvada hockey club 9-0, and the Hyland Hills Jaguars 7-0.

Brandon’s Crocus Plainsmen gave the Kodiaks a bit more of a run for their money.

“Plains gave us a good game 2-1 into the final minute,” Zajac said. “Then it was 3-1.”

Kodiaks goaltender Jakob Geres was named the tournament’s top goalie, with two shutouts and only allowing one goal in his three games between the posts.

With the end of the regular season closing in, the Platinum Promotions Division Kodiaks are hoping to keep the momentum rolling.

“We better take that confidence into our three league games and into the playoffs,” Zajac added. “We want to take it into city and provincials.”

“Winning a championship we hope to convert that into going into the playoffs,” Paulley said. “We hope to take it all the way.”

And while the Winnipeg Free Press Division Miles Mac Buckeyes didn’t take home the championship, the tournament proved to be a successful outing.

“The Winnipeg teams were pretty dominant,” Fritzsche admitted.

Like the Kodiaks, the Buckeyes were able to beat their Colorado counterparts, winning 5-0 against Hyland Hills and 7-2 against the Arvada club. The Crocus Plainsmen held the Buckeyes to a 3-3 tie, with the Buckeyes besting the Brandon squad in a shootout to win 4-3.

“The U.S. teams played more of a run-and-gun game, not as physical,” 15-year-old Buckeyes centre Matt Quaye said. “Usually here it’s a little more crash and bang.”

The Texas trip also helped to bring the Buckeyes squad closer together coming into the final stretch of season games.

“We’re definitely closer as a team,” Clayton Bright, 15, said. “We’re supporting each other more, playing more as one unit.”

“With coach being out, we’ve faced a lot of adversity,” Fritzsche said, referring to a serious injury Buckeyes’ longtime coach Brad Stelmach sustained over the holidays.

“All that time together, it helps bring us together. I’ve noticed the level of improvement over the last couple weeks, and especially now after Dallas, the boys really buying into the team’s system.”

While in Dallas, players from both the Kodiaks and the Buckeyes were billeted with host families, and got a chance to see some of the sights the Dallas-Fort Worth area has to offer.

“The Texas hospitality thing people talk about is definitely true,” Fritzsche said. “They really took the boys in.”

“It was a really cool experience,” Buckeye Matt Halchakar, who was injured but made the trek to Texas anyway, said.

“The host family was super nice,” he added. “We went to the Dallas Stars game. We got to see the players walk on and off the ice. And I got a picture with (Dallas Stars right-winger Valeri) Nichushkin.”

As of Jan. 27, the River East Kodiaks are 12-6-1 with three games remaining in the regular season. The Miles Mac Buckeyes are 10-5-1 with five games to go before playoffs.