WENATCHEE, Wash. - The season is heating up for all four Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy programs, including a scorching weekend for the Academy's 15-Only team that saw them finish 4-1 at the CCM Denver tournament, reaching the semifinals in their first official season of 15O competition.

Wenatchee cruised in pool play on Friday, shutting out the Ogden Jr. Mustangs 6-0 before defeating the Lafayette Locomotive MILNE team 5-1. The Littleton Hawks provided a rugged test for the 15O Wild, but fell to Wenatchee 3-2. The Wild Hockey Academy landed a semifinal berth thanks to a 6-4 win over the Arizona Jr. Sun Devils Gold team, but the eventual champion Lafayette Locomotive earned a 5-0 win to eliminate the Wild from the competition.

The Wenatchee 14U team finished 1-3 at the tournament, recovering nicely from a winless stretch in pool play to earn a consolation win in the 2010 Supertacks division. The Colorado Rampage took a 7-2 win Friday to open the tournament, followed by a 6-0 Rocky Mountain Roughriders win that evening. The Colorado Thunderbirds closed out pool play with a 6-0 win over the Wild, but in the tournament's very last game, Wenatchee prevailed by a 6-4 final over the Jr. Sun Devils Elite team.

"The 15O team played really well. We couldn't ask for a better weekend from them, other than bringing a banner home," said Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy director Troy Mick. "I know Coach Lochten loved the performance of his team - in those tournaments, you're playing a lot of hockey in a short period of time, so they played great and represented our program well. Our 14U played three of the top 14U teams in the country, and that's competition that we don't get to play. That's why we go down there, and the last game they played a really good team and they ended up coming back and winning."

Both the 16U and 18U programs stepped onto the ice in Canadian Sport School Hockey League play, giving their opponents stiff competition in one-goal losses throughout the weekend. Friday's 18U game against Coeur d'Alene Academy was a seesaw affair that saw each team take the lead in the first 40 minutes, and again in the final period. A CDA goal with 40 seconds remaining was the difference in a 4-3 decision, while Wenatchee battled back from a pair of two-goal deficits on Saturday night to send their game in Idaho to a shootout before falling by an identical 4-3 score. Otaro Inoue scored two goals in that game, including the tying marker early in the third.

"Saturday, we out-shot them 15-5 (in the first period) and couldn't bury one," said Mick. "We scored in the middle of the third to go up 3-2, and then they got two, especially the one with 40 seconds left - that was a killer. The next day at CDA, we fell asleep in the first period, but we played a lot better in the second and third. I was proud of the effort - they didn't quit, and came back. Our biggest thing is consistency in our game, playing hard for 60 minutes. When we do, we're successful."

The 16U team battled Shawnigan Lake School to a 3-2 decision on Friday evening, trimming a late Shawnigan Lake lead back to a goal thanks to a power play tally from Tyler Stefani with 2:37 to go. Liam Rogers made 35 saves in the loss, while Keagan Bradshaw stopped 29 of 30 STAR Hockey Academy shots in a 1-0 decision Saturday afternoon. Adrian Afrakov's goal nine seconds into the third period was the only entry on the score sheet in the game.

"Shawnigan is a very good prep school on Vancouver Island, and we were neck-and-neck with them," said Mick. "It was an evenly-played game that could have gone either way, and both teams played really well. With two one-goal losses, the guys are playing better. Structurally, they're playing better, and coach (Pat) Norlin is very happy with his guys. Obviously, you want to win, but there's progress being made for sure."

This season is the first for a Washington-based team in USA Hockey's 15O division, but the schedule has come together nicely for the club. With tournaments to compete in and a regional league with slightly-older AA players in the 16-and-under age division, Mick says being the only 15O team in Washington state has hardly been a disadvantage.

"They get an automatic bid to the regionals in Anaheim, California, and that's always a nice carrot in recruiting," said Mick. "Last year we had to play in some 18U tournaments up in Canada, and it was a really varied competition level. This year, they're playing 15O in Colorado, and then in a couple of weeks they go to Chicago. That new league is great, with a lot of more local games and not having to be on the road or fly away."

This weekend will see the competition schedule slow down somewhat, with only the 16U team in action at their first CSSHL showcase of the year in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The weekend starts with a Friday afternoon game against STAR Hockey Academy before squaring off with Notre Dame Prep and the Indigenous Sports Academy on Saturday and Sunday.