MHR 2023-24 Games of the Year

Game #3 – February 11, 2024

USA Boys 2011 Tier 2

CSDHL Pee Wee Major Championship Game

#87 Lake County Vipers 2, #79 Northwest Chargers 1 (OT)

There’s a common belief in sports – one that has proven to be true countless times over the years – that it is extremely difficult to beat a team three times in one season. The feat becomes even more challenging when two teams are evenly matched.

There also are times in sports when it seems like one team just has another team’s number. Two teams may appear to be closely matched on paper or one team may even carry the play much of the time when it faces a particular opponent, but to no avail. Somehow, someway the same team always seems to come out on top.

Sometimes both of those scenarios can come into play; such was the case in the battles between the 2011 AA Lake County Vipers and Northwest Chargers this past season.

Lake County concluded the 2023-24 campaign with a record of 38-15-6 and having outscored its opponents, 173-11. Meanwhile, the Chargers finished at 38-16-2 and compiled a 226-127 scoring advantage against their foes.

Northwest even completed the season ranked slightly higher, according to MYHockeyRankings.com, finishing at No. 79 overall in the United States 2011 boys overall rankings while the Vipers concluded the campaign ranked 87^th.

Yet, when the two teams met for the first two times last season, it felt like Lake County had constructed a brick wall in front of its net as the Vipers skated away with a pair of 4-0 shutout victories Oct. 21 and Jan. 7. But the Chargers would get their chance for redemption when it mattered most in the Central States Developmental Hockey League (CSDHL) Pee Wee Major championship game Feb. 11 at Canlan Ice Sports in West Dundee, Ill.

On that day, for most of the game it appeared as though that adage about beating a team three times in one season would hold true.

The Chargers took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Scott Wong with 7:25 remaining in the second period – with an assist going Anthony Ernst – and goalie Lucas Raimondo stopped the first 22 shots sent his way by Lake County as Northwest clung to a 1-0 lead entering the final minute of regulation. That’s when the hockey gods stepped in once again, determined to put their own spin on the outcome.

With the goalie pulled, Lake County’s Charles Rancourt scooped up a puck that had been worked free in the left-wing corner by teammate Tristan Pluciennik, cruised behind the goal, turned and fired a shot that beat Raimondo from a challenging angle to tie the game and force overtime with just 52 seconds showing on the clock. Then, during the extra period, Ty Lother skated in from the point and floated a high shot over Raimondo’s outstretched glove to lift his team to the championship and earn the Vipers’ program its first-ever CSDHL title of any kind.

The teams would meet again two weeks later under different circumstances, playing in another 1-0 thriller, but that time Raimondo and the Chargers came out on top, 1-0, thanks to the netminder’s 16 saves and Henry Haffner’s second-period tally.

But it’s that memorable overtime championship-game instant classic that will be etched in the minds and memories of all those who participated and witnessed it.

CLICK HERE for game highlights

Congratulations to the Lake County Vipers and Northwest Chargers on providing us with Game No. 3 of our Games of the Year countdown!