ALL THE WAY TO STATES!

March 24, 2009—Dublin, California When the Pee Wee A, Tri-Valley Blue Devils started the 2008-2009 campaign back in September, the players and coaches single most important team goal was to make it to California State Championships in Simi Valley, California.  After 7 grueling months and nearly 50 games, the Blue Devils achieved its season-long goal by capturing 3 of 4 victories at the Northern California Championship at Logitech Ice this last weekend.

The Pee Wee A Blue Devils cinched its team goal by winning 3 consecutive games in the NorCal playoffs with wins over the Cupertino Cougars, San Jose Jr. Sharks and Santa Clara Blackhawks. Tri-Valley earned a trip to Simi Valley by being 1 of 4 teams to battle for the coveted California State crown.

The Devils Down Cupertino!
In the opening contest between the Cougars and the Blue Devils, Steven Chiu tallied 4 goals in a 20-2 one-sided, goal-scoring barrage. Tri-Valley scored 9 first period goals and never looked back in the opener.  Willie Chan tallied another victory in the nets in the lopsided win. 

Poof!  Up Jumped the Devils!
Against the San Jose Jr. Sharks, the Devils were down early as the Sharks scored a pair of goals before Josh Nobida netted a beautiful power play goal to jump-start the Devils. With a man advantage, Nobida faked a pass to the point, skated out of the corner into the slot and roofed a wicked wrist shot past the Sharks net minder. Nobida’s power play goal ignited the Devil’s offense.  Just like that, poof, up jumped the Devils! 

After being down by two goals, Tri-Valley eventually tied the game in a ferocious comeback. Left Wing, power forward Kyle Lohmann banged home the game winner after delivering a punishing check on a Sharks defenseman in the attacking zone, stealing the puck and passing the puck to Matt Bissell in front of the San Jose net. Bissell took a crack at the puck. The rebound bounced off the goalie’s shoulder and shot over to Connor Young. Young flipped one on the Sharks goalie.  Lohmann alertly jumped out of the corner, right to the front of the Sharks cage and shoveled the last rebound into the net.

After relinquishing the two early goals, Martin Munn was a standout in the Tri-Valley pipes the rest of the way. From the second period on Munn settled into the pace of the game and turned away all the remaining Sharks shots and scoring chances.   

This key come-from-behind-victory set the stage for one final battle-royal between the Tri-Valley Blue Devils and the rival Santa Clara Blackhawks. During the regular season and tournament play the Blackhawks won the season series 6-2-2 in 10 games and in doing so Santa Clara hoisted two tournament championship trophies.  

The Stage is Set for One Last Battle-Royal
This final game was for all the marbles and the final punctuation on the season. It would determine the team would head south to Simi Valley. Both teams fate were held in the balance.  A Devils victory sends Tri-Valley to the State Finals. A Blackhawk win by 2 or more goals had Santa Clara heading south.  
From the drop of the puck the play between both teams was closely fought, fast paced and up-and-down between both offensive and defensive zones. Santa Clara’s star forward, Robbie Jackson started the scoring. With a full head of steam Jackson picked up a loose puck at center ice, skated by a pair of Devil’s defensemen and guided a wrist shot over the left shoulder of starting goalie Martin Munn. 

True to form, Jackson was the Devils nemesis throughout the entire year. No other opposing player scored more points, more goals or more game-winning goals against Tri-Valley than Robbie Jackson.

Again after rendering the first goal, Martin Munn stepped up his game and starred in the Devil pipes. Munn’s biggest save came after Santa Clara left winger William Bailey whipped a wrist-shot that was clearly headed inside the far post. Munn stretched-out fully to his left and snagged the Bailey laser beam right out of the air. The Devil goalie’s confidence was raised dramatically after this big game-changing save.

Coming from behind in its second consecutive game, Matt Bissell scored the game-tying goal at 13:12 of the second period.  Kyle Lohmann drew the assist on the equalizer.

Quite possibly the biggest and most important shift of the tournament for Tri-Valley came when Cole Merrick, Quinn Moore and Matthew Welch started hammering the Blackhawks with body checks all over the ice. For over 40 seconds, Merrick, Moore and Welch plastered Santa Clara players with punishing hits.

After stealing the puck Cole Merrick tore in on right wing and feathered a soft pass over to Matthew Welch at the top of the Blackhawk slot. Bearing in on Blackhawks star goalie, Jeffrey Grimm, Welch faked a shot on his forehand, flipped it to his backhand and slid it between Grimm’s sprawling legs. Logitech Ice and the Devil’s cheering section erupted for Welch’s game winning goal. Tri-Valley held on for a 2-1 victory over their rival Santa Clara.

To illustrate how evenly matched both teams were throughout the year, both Tri-Valley and Santa Clara finished with 33 goals for and 33 goals against in 11 contests.     

Devils’ Defense & Munn Were Money!
Martin Munn starred in the game and routinely turned-aside all the remaining Blackhawk shots and scoring chances. The final win served as vindication for Munn as he had to play in Jeffrey Grimm’s shadows throughout most of the 2008-2009 campaign. 

Tri-Valley’s defensive corps of Justin McGowan, Jake Minton, David Adams and Josh Nobida played stingy throughout the 3 game winning-streak relinquishing only 5 total goals in 3 games for 1.66 goals per game. The back-liners played solid throughout by letting Munn see shots and clearing close-in rebounds.  

The Devils defense and Munn’s play throughout the weekend proved vital in sealing Tri-Valley’s travel plans to the California State Championships. The PeeWee A Tri-Valley Blue Devils will now compete against the San Jose Jr. Sharks, Anaheim Jr. Ducks and California Stars for the state championship April 3-5 at Iceoplex in Simi Valley.

In-house Bantam/Midget News:

The playoffs for the in-house Bantam/Midgets were held last weekend for The Bee Bops, The Frozen Whales, and the Baconators.  In the semi-final match, The Frozen Whales fended off The Baconators to advance to the finals against the returning champions, The Bee Bops.  The finals showcased some of the best hockey and goal tending of the season giving The Frozen Whales and Coach Gordon Tredger their first In-House Plaque (the in-house equivalent of the Stanley Cup).  Congratulations to The Frozen Whales and our 2 net minders, Robert McCourt and Corey Suponcic.

PeeWee B ~ DYNAMIC DUO !!

In the last game of the regular season, goalie Max Kelly stopped 27 shots and team mate center man, Felix Allard, scored the only goal; giving Pee Wee B a VICTORY! 

Fresno had been undefeated this season until last Sunday, March 8th when Tri-Valley PWB beat them.  The TV Pee Wee B is the only team to defeat every team in their division in the 2008-09 regular season.

Congratulation PWB TEAM!

Last night the Tri-Valley Blue Devils Midget 18AA team was crowned the 2009 Tier II State Champions by defeating the California Stars 1-0 at Skate Town in Riverside.  The Blue Devils went 3-1-0 in the tournament including two shutout victories to capture the title.  The team will now prepare for the USA Hockey Pacific District playoffs which will be held March 5-8 in Valencia, California where they will play teams representing Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.

Congratulations to Tri - Valley's Squirt B Goalie, Jake Acton. He is one of this week’s Norcal Stars of the week . He will be  featured Wednesday night during Comcast’s telecast of the NHL Sharks game against the Pittsburg Penquins at 4:30PM. His picture and respective write-up will also be included on the Sharks' website under "Fan Zone".