Silver Sticks

The Silver Sticks International tournament was held this weekend in Whitby, Ontario, bringing together some of the best teams in the US and Canada. You can view the scores to all of the games here.

There were two US teams in the Minor Midget AAA division: Detroit Compuware and Detroit Belle Tire. The Compuware team, which features college commits such as Michigan recruits Jared Knight and Luke Moffatt, and Michigan State commit Michael Gunn, went 3-0 in bracket play, but fell 2-1 in the quarterfinals to the Toronto Jr. Canadiens, who was ranked as the second best Minor Midget team in the OHL Cup standings.

Belle Tire went 2-1 in exhibition play, with their only loss coming to the Elgin Middlesex Chiefs. In the semifinals, Belle Tire knocked off the Jr. Canadiens, who were without John McFarland, a forward that is considered to be the next great Canadian hockey player, who was serving a 3-game suspension. In the final, Belle Tire lost again to Elgin-Middlesex. It was an impressive showing from Belle Tire, especially considering that Belle Tire's '91 birthdates were not allowed to play in the tournament.

In case you're curious, here is the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs roster. The Chiefs were ranked 8th in the OHL Cup standings, and will likely be moving up after this weekend.

The Minor Bantam AAA tournament many more American teams, and an American team, Chicago Mission, ended up winning the tournament, beating the Toronto Marlies. Here is the roster for the Mission, but since the team is comprised of '94 birthdates, you'll be far too old to actually enjoy their play by the time they get to college.

I don't much about the team, but a few things stick out while looking at their roster. First is defenseman Vince Pedrie, who I would guess is of some relation to Larry Pedrie, who was an assistant coach at Ferris State, Illinois-Chicago, and Michigan, and head coach at UIC. After leaving college coaching, Pedrie stayed in the Chicago area, working for the Blackhawks and founding the Chicago Chill AAA program.

Second, the team seems to have a female goalie in Megan Miller. It looks like Miller is the team's back-up goalie, starting four of the team's 11 MWEHL games, but she has very impressive statistics in the league games she has played in.

Third, one of the coaches on that Mission team is Greg Tam. Tam, an Illinois native, played defense for the Soo Indians of the NAHL, and was a late addition to St. Cloud State's roster for the 2002-2003 season. Tam played four games for the Huskies before transferring out east to D-III New England College where he played for two seasons.