Vegas Junior Golden Knights Win National Championship

Congratulations to the Vegas Junior Golden Knights 14 and under hockey team for winning the 2023 Chipotle-USA Hockey Tier 2 National Championship held in Denver, Colorado March 30 through April 3.

According to an article written by Matt Meyer on USAHockey.com, our local team accomplished this feat in spectacular, nail-biting style, winning the championship game in a shoot-out by the score of 2-1 over the Valley Thunder team from Alaska.

Junior Golden Knights goaltender Vincent Vitale made 27 saves in the final, and forced four misses in the shoot-out to give his team a chance to capture the title. Rodrick Reynolds III scored the only regulation goal for Vegas in the championship game.

The tournament did not start off well for our local boys. They lost their first game last Thursday to the Manchester Flames from New Hampshire by a score of 4-1. After that wake-up call, they went on a five game winning streak to capture the championship title. In the process, they beat more heavily favored teams from hockey-mad parts of our nation to make it to the final game against the team from Alaska.

On Friday, Vegas blanked the Nashville Flyers from Tennessee by a score of 5-0. On Saturday, they fired 50 shots on goal in a 6-1 rout over the team from Washington, the Spokane Junior Chiefs. On Sunday, the Junior Golden Knights beat the Palm Beach Breakers from Florida 4-2 in a pretty evenly played quarterfinal match.

In the semi-finals they took on the red hot Team North Dakota, who had just pulled off three consecutive shut-out victories by the lopsided scores of 7-0, 8-0, and 5-0 over teams from Indiana, Maine, and Maryland, respectively. Vegas pulled off the surprise of the 14 & under Tier 2 tournament by blanking Team North Dakota 3-0, even though the Junior Golden Knights were outshot 31-15.

It took great goaltending, clutch scoring, and a team that pulled together in a very tough tournament to capture the title. Their parents must be very proud. Your city is proud of you too. Congratulations!

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Larry Martino is the long-time Afternoon Drive personality on 96.3 KKLZ. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of Larry Martino and not necessarily those of Beasley Media Group, LLC.