Last week on March 1st was the beginning of the Alaska Heat's 18ub team's hockey state tournament. After the progress made on President's Day, the team was hopeful of the outcome for state. The team won every game in their bracket and made it to the crossovers, or semi-finals. It was an extremely close and exciting game. In the first period, the team was up 4-1. However, in the second period, things started to fall apart. The score ended up being tied 5-5. After no goals were scored in the third period, the game had to go into overtime. In overtime, whichever team scores first wins the game. The Gomez Rams ended up making the shot through the goalie's five-hole and won the game, 5-6.
Player Teagan Champagne says, "I feel like our team played really good, we played as a team instead of Glory Hounds, always wanting a goal. We need to talk more and not be as quiet. We also need to look where we pass and stop shooting the puck at the blue line. We were great until the second period when I got a penalty and everyone got down and started pouting. Then we got goals scored on us and then it was tied up. It was a tough game and we should have won. We should not have gone into overtime because it shouldn't have been that close. If we hadn't gotten down, we would have won."
"I think we did good the whole tournament. We need to work on not getting penalties and talking more. We did good until someone got a penalty. I blame Teagan for the loss," Says player Dawson Brinkman.
The team plans to make improvements on these issues so that by next year, they will be ready to win state. Now that the season is over, they will have to work hard both on and off the ice to meet those needs.