AAA Bantam Minor – Little Caesars Fall Challenge Champions!

The Little Caesars AAA Bantam Minor team competed in the 3rd annual Little Caesars AAA Fall Challenge held in Port Huron the weekend of September 4th-6th.  This tournament field is the most competitive field assembled for the 2002 birth year in both Canada and the United States based upon 2015 final myhockeyrankings.com formulas.

The field featured 16 of the top Bantam Minor AAA teams in North America.  14 of the 16 teams were ranked in the top 15, 1-4 in the USA and 8 of the top 10 teams in the United States.  The Canadian teams were all in the top 10 including #2 Toronto Jr. Canadiens. 

Kris Draper’s team (assisted by Craig Roehl and Paul Moretz) swept through round-robin play by defeating  #8 Green Bay Gamblers, #14 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite and #4 North York Rangers (Ontario).  Thus, sealing the #1 seed in the division and advancing to the quarter finals.   

Little Caesars trailed early in the quarter finals 2-0 before mounting a come from behind victory by a score of 3-2 over #10 Buffalo Jr. Sabres.   Nearly a repeat performance in the semi finals when they faced the Nolan Howe (Mr. Hockey’s grandson) and his #6 ranked ISS Kings (New Jersey).  Trailing 2-0 they once again got it going and sailed to a 7-4 victory.  The finals featured #2 Ranked Toronto Jr. Canadiens.  This game was a different story as Little Caesars shot out to 3-0 lead.  However, JRC scored two late 2nd period goals to close the gap.  The third period was all LC as they worked hard to secure a 4-2 championship victory.   

All weekend the Little Caesars team displayed a smothering forecheck and relentless backcheck led by forwards Mark Estapa (Polar Ice / Howie’s Hockey Tape finals MVP), DJ Dixon, Tiernan Shoudy, Grant Hindman, Kienan Draper, Garrett Szydlowski, Carter Mazur, Dominic James, and Tanner Kelly.  The defense did a great job led by Jacob Truscott, Jacob Bauer, Hunter Hatcher, Dakota Kott, Tiernan Shoudy and Nick O’Hanisain.  Caesars benefited from outstanding goaltending all tournament from both Luke Beally and Xavier Medina. 

Kris Draper summed up the weekend by stating “I am very proud of this group the way they do all the little things:  stopping on pucks, winning battles, backchecking and playing two way hockey.  This tournament is the most competitive field we will see this year and to see these 13 year olds win an event like this is pretty special.  It was a tremendous event helped made possible by our great sponsors including Howie’s Hockey Tape, Caravan Facilities Management, Warrior and Polar Ice.”