MYHockey News
Week 9 Weekend Wrap
While we’ve been treated to some large high-level tournaments such as the Beantown Classic and CCM World Invite for top AA and AAA boys and girls teams in recent weeks, those events really just are the tip of the iceberg as the holidays approach.
Thanksgiving in the United States is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year, and that extends to the youth hockey community as teams of all age and skill levels hop in the family SUVs and head out of town to compete in tournaments all over the country. And from Thanksgiving all the way through December and into the New Year, it’s a safe bet that there will be at least one big holiday tournament taking place each weekend somewhere in North America.
Week 9 of the MYHockey 2023-24 season was a week away from the start of holiday hockey craziness, but there still were plenty of great hockey events taking place on both sides of the border.
In the United States, one of the top 18U AAA leagues in the nation held its first full weekend of play as the Prep Hockey Conference’s six teams descended upon Warrior Arena in downtown Boston and Harvard’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center to tangle from Saturday through Monday.
The PHC is a six-team league divided into and East and West divisions.
PHC’s East Division includes perennial U.S. national-championship contender Mount St. Charles, currently the 14th-ranked USA Boys Tier 1 National Bound and No. 1 USA Boys Independent Prep team; South Kent School, the No. 25 overall USA Boys 18U Tier 1 team; and Northwood School, the 13th-ranked overall USA Boys 18U Tier 1 and No. 3 USA Boys Independent Prep team.
Canada’s No.1 Boys Prep team, St. Andrews College, is joined by Shattuck-St. Mary’s and Culver Academies, the Nos. 1 and 3 National Bound Tier 1 Boys teams in the U.S., in the West Division. Shattuck and Culver also are ranked first and second among USA Boys Independent Prep teams.
All six PHC member clubs were in Boston last weekend, providing us with one of our MHR Week 9 Games of the Week. Also, in early December Shattuck-St. Mary’s will travel to Aurora, Ontario, to take on St. Andrew’s College in a two-game PHC series between the top-ranked Boys Prep programs in the U.S. and Canada.
Another of our Week 9 Games of the Week took place at the Barrie Sharkfest, a tournament hosted by the Barrie Women’s Hockey Association in Ontario that included some of Canada’s top U13 Tier 1 Girls teams along with teams competing in 14 other age groups from Friday through Sunday.
And our final two Games of the Week were contested as part of the Alliance AAA Faceoff, which was held Friday through Sunday in Windsor, Ontario, and included some of Ontario’s top U18 AAA Boys teams.
MHR WEEK 9 GAMES OF THE WEEK
USA Boys 18U Tier 1
#3 T1 National Bound/#6 T1 Overall/#2 Ind. Prep
Culver Academies (3)
vs.
#13 T1 Overall/#3 Ind. Prep
Northwood School (2)
Sunday, November 19 at 6:30 p.m. EST
Warrior Arena – Boston, Mass.
This matchup featured two of the USA’s top-13 Overall Tier 1 18U Boys and two of the top-three USA Boys Independent Prep teams facing off in a Prep Hockey Conference contest. Northwood already was 4-0-0 in league play before going 1-2-0 on the weekend, including a 2-1 overtime victory against St. Andrews College, Canada’s top-ranked Prep team. That left Northwood with an overall record of 18-5-0 and having outscored its opponents, 82-29, for the season. Culver was competing in its first league contests of the season and went 2-1-0 to head back to Ohio with an overall record of 12-2-0. In addition to this victory over Northwood, Culver beat No. 25 USA Overall South Kent School, 6-5, in overtime before falling to USA Tier 1 No. 14 National Bound Mount St. Charles, 4-2, to close the weekend. Culver has outscored its foes, 56-27, for the season. Northwood led in this contest by 1-0 and 2-1 margins, but Culver used a three-goal second period to take control and then held Northwood off in the final frame to secure the one-goal victory. Luke Hogan scored twice for Culver in an 18-second span of the second period, with Alexy Lachaine adding the third tally and Zach Zhang dishing out a pair of assists. Samuel Lyne and Parker Thompson scored for Northwood. Evan Tompkins stopped 16 Northwood shots to earn the win in goal.
Canada Girls U13 Tier 1
#2 Sudbury Lady Wolves (4) vs. #10 Barrie Sharks (1)
Saturday, November 18 at 8:30 a.m. EST
Peggy Hill Team Community Centre – Barrie, Ontario
This was an opening-round clash of top-10 Canada Girls U13 AA foes early Saturday morning at the Barrie Sharkfest as the10th-ranked host Sharks faced off against the second-ranked Sudbury Lady Wolves. Sudbury brought a sparkling 17-1-3 record into the weekend and had outscored its opponents, 84-20 before posting a 3-1-0 record on the weekend. The Lady Wolves recorded shutout victories over the No. 25 Kingston Ice Wolves and No. 18 Bluewater Hawks along with the 4-1 win vs. Barrie. Sudbury fell in it’s the semifinals, however, 3-0, to the No. 7 Oakville Hornets to conclude the tournament with an overall record of 20-2-3 and having outscored its opponents, 96-24, for the season. Barrie opened tournament play with a 4-3 loss to the Hornets before beating the No. 13 Whitby Wolves, 3-1, and falling to Sudbury. They rebounded with a 2-1 victory over Bluewater before falling to the Hornets again, 3-2, in the finals. The Sharks concluded the weekend with a 6-9-6 overall record.
Ontario Boys U18 AAA
#4 Waterloo Wolves (3) vs. #14 Lambton Jr. Sting (2) - SO
Saturday, November 18 at 12:00 p.m. EST
Central Park Athletics – Windsor, Ontario
The Sting were looking for an opening-round upset of the fourth-ranked Wolves at the Alliance AAA Faceoff Saturday in Windsor, but instead dropped a 3-2 shootout heartbreaker. Waterloo led, 2-1, after two periods thanks to goals by Noah Vandenberg and Michael Rutledge, but Jackson Birkbeck tied the game 22 seconds into the third period for Lambton before Vandenberg and Colin Slattery won it with a pair of shootout goals. Reed Strauss thwarted both shootout attempts he faced to earn the victory in goal for the Wolves. Xandre Aitken had the other Sting tally. Slattery had a pair of assists for Waterloo, with Rutledge contributing an assist to go along with his goal. The Wolves posted a 2-2-0 record at the tournament and are now 22-7-1 overall. Lambton went 3-1-0 and is now 15-5-0.
Ontario Boys U18 AAA
#8 Elgin-Middlesex Canucks (3) vs. #4 Waterloo Wolves (0)
Sunday, November 19 at 12:30 p.m. EST
Central Park Athletics – Windsor, Ontario
The Wolves weren’t able to win their tournament opener at the Alliance AAA U18 Faceoff in Windsor as the Canucks scored once in each period and rode the shutout goaltending of Xavier Bussiere to victory in a battle of top-10 Ontario U18 Boys teams. Paiton Desangher scored twice, with Ben Funston contributing a single tally for Elgin-Middlesex in the victory. Hayden Barch, Colsen Joyce and Zander Kechego added assists for the Canucks, who went 4-0-0 on the weekend to improve to 21-7-1 overall. They have outscored their opponents, 99-52.
About Games of the Week
Games of the Week previews will be posted every Thursday, Friday or Saturday through the end of the regular season. Game summaries, along with occasional video highlights, will be posted no later than Wednesday of the following week.
With more than 20,000 teams in our database by season’s end, it’s impossible to be aware of all the great games that are scheduled throughout North America each week, so if you know of any upcoming games between highly ranked teams please feel free to email the details a week in advance if possible to scott@myhockeyrankings.com.
Include in your email:
- Team names, location, league affiliations and age group
- Current team rankings (national, state, provincial, etc.)
- Day, time and location of the game or games
- Any other details – past history, statistical info/team leaders, college commitments playing or other interesting information
- Quotes from players or coaches are great, too, but not required
- If the game or games are available on LiveBarn or via another streaming service, please send the link
We will be partnering with Clanko Media throughout the season to bring our readers and followers video highlights of selected Games of the Week, and we also are open to posting highlights of any other games we feature if someone can provide them for us.
