December 28th Tournament

Team Orange: Noah Kline drafted: Cody Schuckers, Laken Dodd, Jason Stamler and Tony Dodd. They were 0-2-1 to start the tournament but snuck into the playoffs by winning their final 2 round robin games, including one against another playoff qualifier (team Pink led by Noah's dad and Dave Jewell). In the play in game, they defeated team White (led by Zach Smith, Tyler Waltman and Justis Reed) by a score of 4-2. They immediately had to play the #1 seed (Blue --- Larry, Stinchcomb, RJ, Roush, Mark Chesley, Clint). Noah Kline scored a couple late goals including one in overtime to get team Orange into the finals against team Yellow. Team Yellow was a heavy favorite going into the tournament but Team Orange was able to get past them by a score of 6-2 in the final game. Yellow was led by Eric Llewellyn, Kevin Smith and Andy Calvert. They also had a solid defenseman in Rob Reed. Their biggest question was Kaden Coulter in net considering he had not played in Reynoldsville for a long time. Up until the final game, Coulter played well but team Orange was able to put up 6 goals in that final game.

We would like to thank everyone for playing. We had 44 people attend the event.

Below are a few interviews:

Noah Kline (Team Orange)

1. Tournament championship last night. How did it feel to play such a big part of it? It always feels good to win a championship even if it is just a tournament and it feels good to be a big part of it

2. Were you surprised to win the championship game by that much? To be honest yes, I thought that it was gonna be a very close game

3. You guys started slow but finished strong. What do you think you guys (and girl) did better as the tournament went on? I don’t really know, all the games that we didn’t win were close. I think that we just flipped a switch and played our best.

4. Is it extra special to win against your dad in the last round robin game? A little bit, all we knew was that we had to win that game no matter what or we weren’t gonna make it into the top 5.

5. What was it like playing alongside Cody, Laken and stamler? And Dad Dodd? It was pretty fun, i’ve never really played with any of them and it feels good to win a championship with them.

RJ (Blue)

1. Lots of hockey last night. How are you feeling today? I'm a little sore but not too bad.

2. You guys got top seed in the round robin games but lost to orange in overtime. What do you think went wrong in that game? Orange team was just a bit more determined and put on a hard push the last few minutes

3. What was your favorite game out of the 6 you played? I liked the one where we went up by 3 pretty quick and could coast the last few minutes.

4. Do you think you did ok adjusting from puck to ball? Definitely have played more puck hockey the last few years but won't take long to play with balls just like I used to. I might get my stick out at home and play with balls like I did as a kid.

5. You will be with the yeti/Wolfpack this season. What kind of expectations do you have? We should have a good team and I'm looking forward to playing some competitive games.

Kurt Schindler (red)

1. Lots of hockey last night. Hows your body feeling today? Not too bad honestly especially since I expected worse, just a little sore but it felt great to be able to come back and play again after such a long time

2. Were you happy with how you played? Not totally, there were definitely some things I could have done better. There were a lot of times that my hands/feet couldn’t keep up with my brain like it used to be able to haha. Although I think if I was back up here for good and able to play regularly again I could get it back on track

3. You guys tied 3 games but only won once. How would you describe the teams overall play?  I felt like the team played pretty well overall. We were very competitive in all of our games and just got a little unlucky due to the nature of those short games with those ties. I think if we would have won even just 1 of those ties we would have moved on. But in saying that I had a great time playing with the team and was grateful that Wads took a chance on me after my long absence

4. Orange team won the championship. Were you surprised? I don’t think so, it felt like every team had a real shot at winning after seeing all the teams play which made for a very competitive night of games. Plus with them having a player of Cody’s caliber it always gives you a chance as he’s someone that can just take over a game himself

5. Even though you can no longer play in the xhl, do you still try to follow it some? I do here and there, mostly for when I know I’ll be coming back up to the area to visit and see if there’s any games/tournaments like this one I get in on haha. But I do like to check it every now and then because it’s such a great community of people for a sport I very much enjoy and I’m grateful to have been a part of it