What a weekend! Advanced Tournaments put on a series of MYHockey Rankings Tournaments this past weekend. These tournaments were all Tier II. While I could not be in all places at all times, reports have it that there was some great hockey being played at all locations. From my vantage at the Bantam Minor tournament in Indianapolis, there were two 3 goal games on Friday. On the weekend, every game was either two goals or less. The Livonia Knights 94 A team, winners of the Bantam Minor division, lost only one game over the weekend, to the team that finished "last". Great Hockey!

Congratulations to the Ashburn Xtreme (Squirt Major), the Indianapolis Racers (Peewee Major), the Livonia Knights (Bantam Minor), the Northwest Chargers (Bantam Major) and the Orland Park Vikings (Midget Minor). Host cities included Chicago, Holland (MI) and Indianapolis. Each team will have a in front of their name in the rankings to indicate that they have won a 2007-08 MYHockey Rankings Tournament.

For a sampling on the nature of the competition, I loved the stories about the Peewee Major Championship game in Chicago. Unfortunately, I was not there so I can not speak from the first hand excitement, but the Indianapolis Racers faced the Atlanta Fire. It was a close hard faught game with Indianapolis holding a one goal lead in the down the stretch. Atlanta scores with 1.9 seconds remaining in regulation. To be so close and yet have to go to overtime. Normally, you would say that Atlanta would have the momentum, but Indy played tough and they finished two overtime periods, including a 4 vs 4 OT period, scoreless. The Racers prevailed in the shootout. Congrats to both teams for a great tournament.

Over the weekend one thing was obvious. 2006-07 rankings were not a great predictor of success or struggle in the 2007-08 MYHockey Rankings Tournament Series. I am sure, however, that participation will set up many of these teams for strong play during upcoming league competition. The next major weekend for the Tournament Series is over the Presidents Day weekend. On December 1, 2007, Advanced Tournaments will be sending out invitations to the MYHockey Rankings Presidents Cup Invitational Tournaments. It should be another great weekend of hockey!