Why not talk about the game on ice? Buckeye Tournament is coming up in a few weeks. Northern Kentucky has all their teams playing in the A Gold Division.

Why not fill us in on the NKY teams in the "game on ice"?

Why not fill us in on the NKY teams in the "game on ice"?

 

Northern Kentucky's travel teams have had a decent year

 

Squirt Level (Kids born in 04 and 05) - as of the sixth of February are in second place in the Buckeye A Gold South Division. 10-4-2 in league play, and are 17-17-4 overall and earned a silver medal at the Martin Luther King Weekend Tournament in Chicago. With the way these kids are playing, it looks like NKYHA has a great future ahead of them in the Travel and High School Programs

 

Peewee Level (03 and 02) - Have struggled playing in the A Gold division. They are currently at the bottom of the South Division with only two league wins. Also, they only have six overall wins with six ties, and twenty losses. On Martin Luther King Weekend, the Norse travelled to Pittsburgh for the Midwinter for what may have been their best tournament of the year (hopefully the playoffs will be better). The Norse opened up with a 5-2 win over the Charlotte Checkers, then got crushed in their next game by a team that would win the title game by a score of 7-1. The Norse then tied the would-be-runner-up of the tournament. To end the tournament, the Norse battled a tough AA squad to the end, but would lose 4-3.

 

Bantam Level (01-00) - Despite having great leaders in John Hooper and Drew Janszen, the Norse struggled in the first half. The Norse did play very competitive in the Cincy Fall Classic despite being put in the AA bracket. Going into MLK weekend, the Norse needed to try something new for the Pittsburgh tournament, so they moved Jacob Langguth back to defense, and Kyle Taylor to forward. This gave the Norse the spark they needed, as the Norse started off with a comeback win, a 3-2 win, and a tie. This gave the Norse the 1-seed and battle with the Allegheny Badgers in the championship. And what a battle it was: Very physical, very high tense, and very fast was that game. Thanks to great goal-tending by Andrew Stefaniak, the Norse pulled off a 3-2 win to take the gold medal home to Kentucky. The Norse are now gaining momentum for the play offs.

 

U16 AA - Despite losing hockey prospect, Hunter Hogue to AAA hockey, the Norse are still strong. The Norse are currently ranked at 173rd in the nation. The Norse are playing around the .500 mark, and have taken down a AAA team. The Norse swept a Detroit tournament to take the gold, and have had big wins against the Nashville JR Preds. The Norse are not in any league, so they have no post-season, but I would suppose they will try to go nationals where they were the runner up a few years ago as bantams, where they lost to the Atlanta Phoenix.

Thank you for the report. :thumb:

Where do they play their local games?

 

Also, for those of us who do not follow hockey too much, or at all, what are the AAA teams in the area? Is it good for that kid that he made the jump to AAA?

Where do they play their local games?

 

Also, for those of us who do not follow hockey too much, or at all, what are the AAA teams in the area? Is it good for that kid that he made the jump to AAA?

 

AAA hockey is the highest level of youth hockey. To play AAA, you must have an incredible amount of skill and a real good amount of money. Hunter Hogue is now playing for the Ohio Blue Jackets AAA. The other team close to here is Team Ohio. I am pretty sure you will get some in Cleveland and Indy and definitely Pittsburgh. I don't believe that the Cincinnati Swords organization has any AAA teams, but they do have some very good AA teams.

 

And Northern Kentucky plays their home games at Northern Kentucky Ice Center (which really needs some repairs done).

The U16 team has been playing together for a long time. Great group of kids. I believe that they are the only local team (including Cincinnati and NKY) to have came that close to winning a national title. They head down to Texas next month for they National tournament. They have also lost another kid to a team out of Lexington. Good luck NORSE!

 

And Northern Kentucky plays their home games at Northern Kentucky Ice Center (which really needs some repairs done).

 

I'm surprised the place hasn't been shut down. I went in there a little over a month ago, and it was the first time I had been in there in over 20 years. I don't think they've done a single repair/upgrade since. There was ceiling insulation just hanging, exposed wires, the floor by the small rink was falling apart. The place was just nasty.

I'm surprised the place hasn't been shut down. I went in there a little over a month ago, and it was the first time I had been in there in over 20 years. I don't think they've done a single repair/upgrade since. There was ceiling insulation just hanging, exposed wires, the floor by the small rink was falling apart. The place was just nasty.

 

I agree that it is nasty. Last year, water started pouring out of the ceiling in the middle of a game.

Thanks for adding all the info Aroundthehorn.

Squirts and Peewees are both in Nashville this weekend. Squirts have played three games so far, and all I know is that they won one and tied one (not sure about the third game), and I am unsure of what the peewees have done. The Bantams also played two games this weekend against the Cincinnati Swords 01 A Rumpke. They lost the first game, but battled back and won the second game by a score of 2-1. The U16 team also went out of town to Chicago, but I have not seen any results yet.

Good news for the Norse. The squirt team had a solid Nashville tournament, placing in second with a 1-0-2 record in pool play. They made to the championship where they played a team from Sugar Land, Texas. The Norse were down 4-0 going into the third period, but scored four unanswered goals to tie it up. The game would go to a shootout, where the Norse's comeback was stopped. Congrats on the silver medal! The Peewees also had a decent tournament, they finished in third place with a 1-2-1. The u16 also came in 3rd place. They finished at 2-2, with two wins over the Carmel Ice Hounds. With a total of the whole weekend for the Squirts, Peewees, Bantams, and U16, the organization had a total record of 5-6-3. Not a bad weekend at all considering there was tough competition. This coming weekend is the Buckeye League tournament for the Squirts, Peewees, and Bantams. The Bantams will be playing the Cincinnati Swords (Team Rumpke), Squirts will most likely play the Columbus Capitals (Team Baleman), and I believe the peewees will play the Fort Wayne Komets (Team Sather). Good luck!

Good news for the Norse. The squirt team had a solid Nashville tournament, placing in second with a 1-0-2 record in pool play. They made to the championship where they played a team from Sugar Land, Texas. The Norse were down 4-0 going into the third period, but scored four unanswered goals to tie it up. The game would go to a shootout, where the Norse's comeback was stopped. Congrats on the silver medal! The Peewees also had a decent tournament, they finished in third place with a 1-2-1. The u16 also came in 3rd place. They finished at 2-2, with two wins over the Carmel Ice Hounds. With a total of the whole weekend for the Squirts, Peewees, Bantams, and U16, the organization had a total record of 5-6-3. Not a bad weekend at all considering there was tough competition. This coming weekend is the Buckeye League tournament for the Squirts, Peewees, and Bantams. The Bantams will be playing the Cincinnati Swords (Team Rumpke), Squirts will most likely play the Columbus Capitals (Team Baleman), and I believe the peewees will play the Fort Wayne Komets (Team Sather). Good luck!

 

Correction: It looks like the bantams will be playing the Columbus Capitals-Iosue. I am not completely sure yet though. I believe the league is debating something about that division.

Update: Peewees battled it out with Fort Wayne. They were down by either three or four going into the third, but battled back and tied it up. The game went to a shootout where the Peewees lost in an exciting game. The Bantams played and battle the Columbus Capitals, they went up two to nothing, then blew the lead in the second. It was tied in the third period. The Norse scored to take a lead, they scored another goal to go up by two. Then, an empty netter was scored to go up by three. The Capitals tried to make a comeback, they managed to score one to get back in the game, but the Norse scored another goal to put it out of reach and take a 6-3 win in a great game.

Bantams lost in semifinals to the Columbus Blue Jackets (Team Schriner), squirts made it to championship but fell in a tight game to Central Kentucky.