The Silver Bay Bantam team, the Mariners, claimed the championship in the Feb. 5-7 tournament in the Twin Cities. (L-R, front) Lucas Small, Alex Murray, Bradley Rowlee. (L-R, center): Coach Bruce Small, Isaac Bulen, Blake LeBlanc, Jonah Koehler, Thomas Anderson. (L-R, back) Coach Wade LeBlanc, Zach Duresky, Brock LeBlanc, Chad Smuk, Jordan Fralich, Lief Maxwell, Jeff Toland, Coach Larry Fralich.
The Silver Bay Bantams took advantage of solid goaltending and timely scoring to skate away with the championship trophy in their home tournament the weekend of February 5 – 7. Theeight-team tournament featured Twin Cities teams from Centennial and Osseo-Maple Grove, in addition to familiar teams from northern Minnesota.
On Friday night the Mariners broke open a close game in the closing minutes to top Centennial 5-2. Brock LeBlanc scored three times for the Mariners and Alex Murray turned away 34 of 36 shots in goal. Thomas Anderson put the game out of reach with an empty net goal in the final seconds.
Silver Bay raced out to an early lead and never looked back in a 5-1 win over Northern Lakes on Saturday. Zach Duresky turned in a solid performance in goal as the Mariners set themselves up for a championship showdown with Osseo- Maple Grove.
Sunday’s game was youth hockey at its very best. Osseo- Maple Grove entered the game with confidence after rolling over Proctor 6-0 and Hermantown 9-0. Their talent and deep bench, combined with the solid goaltending of Marc Hansen, had earned them a top 20 spot in the Let’s Play Hockey
Bantam “B” rankings. From the drop of the puck it was evident that something special was happening.
The teams traded solid scoring chances before Jonah Koehler put the Mariners on top by hammering in a rebound halfway through the first period. From that point on the two goalies took over, stopping shot after shot as the teams traded scoring chances. Osseo-Maple Grove mounted a furious rally in the final minutes of the game, but Alex Murray saved his best for last as he turned away all 30 shots to skate away with the unlikely 1-0 victory.
The Silver Bay Bantams are: Zach Duresky, Chad Smuk, Brock LeBlanc, Lief Maxwell, Luke Small, Thomas Anderson, Jeff Toland, Bradley Rowlee, Blake LeBlanc, Isaac Bulen, Jonah Koehler, Jordan Fralich and Alex Murray. The coaching staff is: Bruce Small, Wade LeBlanc and Larry Fralich. TheBantam Manager is Jennifer Koehler.
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