02’ Little Caesars AAA Four-peat at States!

The 2002 Little Caesars AAA Bantam Minor team won its fourth straight Michigan Amateur Hockey Association State Championship on Sunday March 20th. 

Lead by Head Coach Kris Draper with Assistant Coaches Craig Roehl and Paul Moretz, the team swept through round-robin play by defeating Victory Honda (14-0), Belle Tire (4-0) and Honeybaked (8-0) earning a trip to the semi-finals against the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies.   The semis yielded the only goal against for the entire tournament in a hard fought 2-1 victory. 

Little Caesars kept the pedal down against Meijer AAA in the finals.  This was a high tempo game that was 1-0 going into the final period.  Little Caesars added another goal half way through the third period to make it 2-0 and that was the final score. 

Little Caesars meant business right from the start by displaying a smothering forecheck led by forwards Mark Estapa, DJ Dixon, Tiernan Shoudy, Grant Hindman, Kienan Draper, Garrett Szydlowski, Carter Mazur, Dominic James and Tanner Kelly.   The defense was outstanding all tournament led by Jacob Truscott, Jacob Bauer, Hunter Hatcher, Dakota Kott, Travis Shoudy and Nick O’Hanisain.  Little Caesars benefited from outstanding goaltending all tournament from Luke Beally and Xavier Medina. 

The Little Caesars finished the season with an impressive 62-7-5 record, Warrior Invitational Championship, LC Fall Challenge Championship, HPHL Playoff Championship and Michigan Amateur Hockey Association State Championship.  Congratulations to all the players, coaches and families for another fantastic season.