SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Roller Hockey

NARCh Finals highlight growth, talent, impact of Pacific Cup teams

By Phillip Brents

The Tour Pacific Cup proved why it likely stands second only in stature to the NARCh Finals after putting forth a full court regional display at this year's national championship tournament in Estero, Fla. While it's been a well established fact that teams from California have excelled at the world's premier roller hockey event, teams from Arizona have now added their names to the list of NARCh champions from the Pacific region.

Six teams that had honed their skills throughout the rigorous Tour Pacific Cup campaign -- four from California and two from Arizona -- had their end of season dreams realized by winning coveted NARCh titles at this year's largest-ever gathering of the top amateur roller hockey teams in the world. Seven more teams from the Pacific region -- all from California -- scored runner-up finishes. On an impressive note, two Platinum Division finals -- Mite and NARCh Pro -- proved all-California matchups. Including Gold and Platinum divisions, there were three all-Pacific Cup championship matchups.

The tournament jump-started with Platinum Division play July 20 to 27 and concluded with Gold Division play July 28 to August 1 at Teco Arena, the home of the Florida Everblades of the East Coast Hockey League. A total of 285 teams participated in this year's tournament to make it the largest roller hockey or ice hockey tournament in the world.

The Nexed OC Blades led the parade of Pacific Cup teams eastward after setting new standards for excellence with an unprecedented four Tour Pacific Cup AAA Tier championships, one AAA Tier Division runner-up finish and adding first- and second-place finishes in the AA Tier Finals for good measure. The Blades' encore performance included two NARCh Platinum titles (Mite and Squirt) and a runner-up finish in another (Atom).

Joining the Blades as NARCh Platinum champions were the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs Pee Wee team. The Bulldogs also won the Atom Gold NARCh championship while the Bulldogs' Junior squad earned a runner-up finish against the same Detroit Mission Stars team it had squared off against in the Bantam Platinum NARCh Finals a year earlier.

Team Excalibur from Phoenix (Mite) and the Arizona Stars (Pee Wee) both rolled to NARCh Gold Division championships.

Runner-up finishes were also produced by the Rinkside Rockets from San Diego County (Mite Gold), Tour EPH Oilers (Junior Gold); Mission Gretzky AKS Empire 90 (Mite Platinum), (L.A.) Tour Riot (Women's Platinum) and Team Mission (NARCh Pro).

The Blades, who captured Tour Pacific Cup AAA Tier titles in the Mite, Squirt, Pee Wee and Bantam divisions while posting a second-place finish in the Atom AAA Tier, advanced teams to the playoffs in all those same divisions at the NARCh Finals. The Blades' Pacific Cup Bantam champions were eliminated in the early rounds of the NARCh playoffs in overtime while the Pee Wee Pacific Cup champions saw their NARCh championship hopes dashed with a 3-2 loss to the arch rival Anaheim Mission Bulldogs in the quarterfinals. However, the Blades' Atom, Mite and Squirt teams all rolled to semifinal-round victories to gain entry into the NARCh Finals championship round.

The Blades defeated the AKS Empire 90 team by a 3-2 score to capture the NARCh Mite Platinum Final while the Blades' Squirt team won another tight 3-2 battle against the Detroit Mission Bulldogs. The Blades' Atom team dropped a 5-3 decision to the Tour Smoke from Long Island in its Platinum Division Final.

Success at the NARCh Finals is nothing new for the Blades, who won the Mite Platinum championship in 1999 in Atlanta while also advancing teams to the Atom and Pee Wee title games. The Blades also captured the Mite Platinum championship title at last year's NARCh Finals in Brampton, Ontario.

After advancing teams to three Platinum Division championship games (Atom, Pee Wee and Bantam) at the 2000 NARCh Finals in Canada, the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs scored a breakthrough this season with two national titles while posting one second-place finish.

After defeating the Blades in the Pee Wee Platinum quarterfinals, the Bulldogs went on to shut out the powerful Mission Honeybaked squad from Michigan, 5-0, to crown their season with a NARCh championship. In the Atom Gold Division, the Bulldogs' AA Tier Pacific Cup champions skated past the Projoy Stingers from Michigan by a 5-1 score to also raise a NARCh championship trophy.

The Bulldogs' runner-up finish in Junior Platinum was a rematch of last year's Bantam Platinum title game but went the same way, with the Detroit team skating to another two-goal victory, this time by a 4-2 score (the Bantam contest ended 2-0 in favor of the Mission Stars).

But the pair of titles by Arizona teams underscored the emerging depth of the Pacific Cup region. Team Excalibur upgraded its Pacific Cup Mite Elite AA Tier title with the NARCh Mite Gold championship trophy after scoring a 6-3 win against the Rinkside Rockets, the Pacific Cup Mite Select AA Tier champions. The Arizona Stars finished the Pacific Cup regular season as the top seeded team in its Pee Wee AA Tier but faltered in the regional championships. However, the Arizona team righted itself in Florida with a 5-3 championship-round victory against the Hyper Blast Roadrunners from Long Island to claim the NARCh Gold title.

The EPH Lady Ducks won the Women's Gold title with a 5-0 victory against the top-seeded Florida Panthers.

The Tour EPH Oilers, who took the second-seeded point total into this year's regional playoff tournament, lost their bid for a NARCh Gold Junior championship with a 3-2 setback to the Junior (Florida) Everblades.

In many cases, little separated the winners from the losers in this year's NARCh playoff field. The Bulldogs made it as far as the Bantam semifinals before bowing 4-1 to eventual Platinum Division champion Mission Honeybaked. The Bulldogs' Squirt entry was sent home after a 3-2 loss to the OC Blades in the semifinals. In another instance of two California team advancing to the NARCh Platinum semifinals, the Tour Corona Edge ended it season in the Atom semis following a 9-2 loss to the OC Blades.

The Mission Gretzky Armadillos, who earned the third seed in this year's Tour Pacific Cup Finals, made it as far as the Division I NARCh quarterfinals before suffering a 3-1 setback to the Mission Snipers from Long Island.

The inaugural Varsity Cup High School Division championship also ended in favor of a West Coast team after the Santiago Sharks from Riverside defeated the Flannagan Falcons from Florida, 4-3, in sudden-death overtime, to made amends for an early round loss to the Florida squad.

This year's Varsity Cup Final Four was the first ever tournament to feature teams from various regions of the country to decide a national high school championship. Besides Santiago and Flannagan, also present in Florida were the Midwest Regional champion Eisenhower Eagles from suburban Detroit and the Taravella Trojans, the runner-up team in the Southeast Regional.

Flannagan -- perhaps capitalizing on its home state advantage -- inaugurated the Varsity Cup Final Four by defeating the other two regional champions. After stopping Western Regional champion Santiago by a 4-1 score in the first game, the Florida team edged Eisenhower, 5-4. However, the California squad promptly got back on the winning track by going undefeated for the remainder of the tournament, defeating Taravella 6-2 and Eisenhower 2-1 to finish round-robin play and then tipping Taravella, 4-3, in the semifinals before gaining a revenge win against top-seeded Flannagan in the Varsity Cup national championship game.

Santiago led 2-0 early before rallying from a 3-2 deficit to send the title game into overtime. Both Santiago and Flannagan finished with 4-1 records in the tournament, with losses to one another. Taravella, which earned the wild-card berth after Desmett High from St. Louis, the runner-up team in the Western Regional, could not attend the Final Four tournament, finished 1-2 in round-robin play and 1-3 overall. Eisenhower finished 0-4 but with two losses by one goal and another by two goals to illustrate the competitive nature of this first Varsity Cup Final Four tournament.

In the NARCh Pro Division, it was an all-California battle as Team Tour edged Team Mission by a 2-1 score in overtime.

A total of 726 games were held at this year's NARCh Finals. Besides round-robin, playoff and championship matchups, skills competitions (fastest skater, top goaltender and top sniper awards were presented) were held in all youth divisions as well as All-Star contests. In the East-West All-Star format, the West team captured the younger three youth division matchups while the East team won the older three age group games. The West defeated the East 9-4 to win the Atom All-Star Game and scored a narrow 2-1 victory in the Mite All-Star Game. The West skated to a more dominating 7-3 win to capture the Squirt All-Star Game. The East squeaked out a 3-2 win in the Pee Wee All-Star Game but scored more lopsided victories to win the Bantam (7-2) and Junior (7-4) All-Star matchups.

In the newly debuted Cub (6 and younger) Division, the WPPO Thunder defeated the Weston Sting 6-2 in an all-Florida matchup. The Sting had beaten the Anaheim Mission Bulldogs 9-1 in the semifinals.

Rounding out this year's NARCh Platinum Division championship field are the Detroit Mission Stars (Junior), Toronto Tigers (Division I), Edmonton Tour Backhanders (Senior) and Mission Betties East (Women). The (Michigan) Flames (Squirt), (Ontario, Canada) Oakville Coyotes 85 (Bantam), Junior (Florida) Everblades (Junior), (Long Island) Rapid Fire Roller Dragons (Senior) and (Detroit) Iron Horse (35 & Older) join the muster roll of NARCh Gold Division champions. The Backhanders repeated as champions in their division.

A total of seven U.S. states (California, Arizona, Michigan, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Missouri) and three Canadian provinces (Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario) were represented in this year's NARCh Gold and Platinum Finals. Besides the two all-California championship-round matchups, there were also one all-Florida, one all-Michigan and one all-Canadian finals pairings.

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