One of the biggest and busiest American youth hockey weekends is here as thousands of players flock to all corners of the United States to participate in Martin Luther King Day Weekend tournaments. Some of the weekend’s biggest events are for Tier 2 teams, so that’s the level we will be celebrating this weekend.

While it’s impossible with a small staff for us to be everywhere and cover all levels of play every week, the abundance of Tier 2 events across the country Jan. 17-20 provides us with an excellent opportunity to promote some of the great teams and tournaments that exist for Tier 2 teams and players.

One of the largest is the 19^th annual Grizz Cup in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area. The Grizz Cup is run by MYHockey Tournaments in conjunction with Wasatch Mountain Amateur Hockey Association. MHT came on board to manage the tournament in 2021, and this year the field has grown to 159, with Tier 2 Boys teams ranging in age from 10U through 18U participating. That’s just one of 15 tournaments featuring 929 teams being run by MHT the weekend of Jan. 17-20.

Also on the docket is the fifth annual Mid-Atlantic Winer Showcase, an invitation-only event featuring 22 Boys Tier 2 teams, many which have high national rankings, from 12 states. The showcase includes 14U AA, 16U AA and 18U AA teams and runs Saturday, Jan. 18, through Monday, Jan. 20, in Hatfield, Pa.

The annual Moose Goheen Tournament, also being hosted by the White Bear Lake Area Hockey Association in Minnesota Jan. 17-20, includes many of the top-ranked teams in our Week 17 Minn-Kota Peewee and Bantam AA Boys rankings. Sixteen Bantam and 12 Peewee teams are competing at rinks in the White Bear Lake, Minn., area. Teams will play three pool-play games each to determine seedings and pairings for Sunday and Monday’s playoffs.

Finally, we turn our attention to a USA Tier 2 Girls tournament being hosted in the Pittsburgh area by the nationally acclaimed Tier 2 Steel City Selects program. The annual Steel City Girls Invitational runs Jan. 17-20 at the Baierl Ice Complex in Warrendale, Pa., and the Roy McKnight Ice Center on the campus of Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh. The tournament features nearly 40 Tier 2 USA Girls teams from around the United States competing at the 12U through 19U age levels.

Let’s take a closer look at each tournament:

 

19^th Annual Grizz Cup

The Grizz Cup has grown to become one of the largest youth tournaments west of the Mississippi, with nearly 160 USA Boys Tier 2 teams participating in better than 930 games this year in Utah. The tournament provides young players ranging in age from 10U through 18U a unique opportunity to play in ice rinks that were used for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Some of the same facilities also will host events during the 2034 Winter Olympics. 

The Grizz Cup is a special event that creates memories lasting a lifetime for its participants, not only because of the venues used but also because of how the tournament is organized and the excitement that is created surrounding the event. Teams are grouped into divisions according to recent ratings as determined by our MYHockey Rankings algorithm to ensure a game experience that is as competitive as possible.

This year’s field includes teams from 14 states and Alberta. Youth hockey associations from as far away as North Carolina and Florida in the Southeast, Texas and Arizona in the Southwest, Southern California on the West Coast and Alaska will be represented. Games are played at nine different venues on 10 different ice sheets. To illustrate just how evenly matched the teams can be, one age group figures eight teams that fall within 1.0 to 1.5 ratings points of each other, according to MHR.

“For many teams, the game experience at the Grizz Cup is much different from many tournaments they play in,” said Neil Lodin, Vice President of Operations for MYHockey Tournaments. “Every year it seems like so many of the games literally come down to the third period. Out West, where a lot of the teams come from, playing in several games that are that close in a tournament simply is not normal for them.”

The Grizz Cup is just one of 15 MLK Day Weekend Tournaments featuring 929 teams being operated by MHT around the United States this year. The attention to detail and careful placement of teams that are as evenly matched as possible is standard operating procedure in those events as well.

But there’s something about the Grizz Cup that is different.

Whether it’s the evenly matched games; the detailed, one-of-a-kind goalie-mask trophies that are handcrafted by Salt Lake City-artist Fred Conlon; the opportunity for families from warm-weather states to hit the slopes for some skiing between games; or the other festivities and activities surrounding the event, there are many reasons that the Grizz Cup has become one of the larges youth hockey tournaments in the West,

This year’s tournament includes AA divisions at all age levels: 18U, 16U, 14U, 12U and 10U. As always, our focus will be on ages 12U through 18U for our Weekend Preview and Weekend Wrap features.

The 12U AA Division features Utah’s top-ranked Utah Jr. Grizzlies, who are the fifth-ranked team overall in the Pacific District and No. 71 overall in the U.S. The San Antonio Jr. Rampage are ranked sixth overall among Texas 12U teams, while the Gulf Coast Flames are No. 4 in Florida and ninth in the Southeast District.

The 14U AA Division includes the USA Tier 2 No. 14 Utah Jr. Grizzlies and the 54^th-ranked Arizona Jr. Sun Devils, who are No. 7 in the Rocky Mountain District.

In the 16U AA Division, the Los Angeles Jr. Kings are ranked among the top 10 in the Pacific District, while the California Heat and Anchorage Stars are ranked 17^th and 19^th, respectively. They are joined by Alberta’s Bow Valley Timberwolves in the top 16U group.

The 18U AA Oregon Selects are ranked 11^th in the Pacific District.

Several of the rinks hosting the Grizz Cup have LiveBarn feeds for live and on-demand viewing.

 

CLICK HERE for the Grizz Cup scores, schedules, standings & stats

 

 

Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase

Part of the Mid-Atlantic Showcase Series, the fifth annual Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase features 22 strong Tier 2 USA Boys programs competing in 14U AA, 16U AA and 18U AA divisions. It is one of four Showcase Seres events run throughout the season.

The Mid-Atlantic Showcase Series began in 2004 as a four-team 16AA tournament. Since then, it has grown to include four of the Mid-Atlantic region’s premier Tier 2 youth ice hockey tournaments. Held in the greater Philadelphia area, the Showcase Series prides itself on providing fun, competitive and safe on-ice competition as well as exposure for the participants to the growing list of college and junior programs located in the region.

In 2019, showcase organizers began inviting college and junior coaches and scouts to the various events to assist the players on participating teams who hoped to advance to higher levels of play beyond 18U.

This year’s Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase runs Saturday, Jan. 18, though Monday, Jan. 20, and is being held at Hatfield Ice. All games should be available for live and on-demand viewing via LiveBarn.

There are six teams in the 14U AA and 18U AA divisions, while the 16U AA Division has 10 teams.

The 14U Division features the third- and fourth-ranked USA Tier 2 Boys 14U teams, according to the MHR Week 17 Rankings. Those teams, the Plymouth Flyers and Northwest Chargers, are joined by the Atlantic District’s top-ranked North Jersey Avalanche and No. 3 Genesis Hockey Club.   

A stacked 16U Division includes three top 10 teams – the No. 4 Affton Americans, No. 7 Ashburn Xtreme and No. 10 Long Beach Lighting – and all 10 are ranked among the top 31. More than half of the 16U participants are in the current MHR Tier 2 top 20.

And moving on to the 18U Division, five of the six teams in the showcase’s oldest age group are ranked among the top 37.

 

CLICK HERE for the Winter Showcase scores, schedules, standings & stats

 

Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase 14U AA Teams

#3 Plymouth Flyers

#4 Northwest Chargers

#16 Ashburn Xtreme

#53 North Jersey Avalanche

#68 Genesis Hockey Club

#87 Pittsburgh Aviators

 

Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase 16U AA Teams

#4 Affton Americans

#7 Ashburn Xtreme

#10 Long Beach Lightning

#15 Oakland Jr. Grizzlies

#17 Long Island Rebels

#19 Carolina Jr. Hurricanes

#21 Montclair Blues

#24 Dallas Penguins

#26 Littleton Hawks

#31 Pittsburgh Vengeance

 

Mid-Atlantic Winter Showcase 18U AA Teams

#9 Montclair Blues

#17 Montgomery Ice Devils

#23 Pittsburgh Vengeance

#27 McKinney North Stars

#36 Wilmington Nighthawks

#37 Pittsburgh Vengeance

#71 Genesis Hockey Club

 

 

Moose Goheen Tournament

The White Bear Lake Area Hockey Association hosts many of the top Minn-Kota Peewee and Bantam AA teams for the annual Moose Goheen Tournament Jan. 17-20. Play began the morning of Friday, Jan. 17, with playoff seedings and matchups to be determined by the end of play Saturday, Jan. 19. Playoff and consolation games begin at 8 a.m. EST Jan. 29, with puck drop for the final playoff game slated for 5:30 p.m. EST that day.

Games are being played at White Bear Lake Sports Center and TCO Sports Garden. Both venues have LiveBarn feeds.

There are a total of 28 teams competing in the 2025 Moose Goheen Tournament, 12 in the Peewee Division and 16 in the Bantam Division. Each division is divided into pools of four teams for round-robin play.

There are two of the top 10 Minn-Kota Boys Peewee AA teams, according to the Week 17 MHR Rankings, in the younger age group. Five of the 12 participants are ranked among the top 20. No. 7 Chaska Chanhassen will face No. 13 Blaine in pool play, while fourth-ranked Woodbury will tackle 12^th-ranked Prior Lake Save in another top preliminary-round matchup.

In the Bantam Division, each of the four pools has at least one team ranked among the Week 17 Minn-Kota top 10. The Pool of Death, however, is the Orange Pool, which includes No. 4 White Bear Lake, No. 7 Woodbury and No. 8 Rogers. The White Pool only has one top 10 team, sixth-ranked Osseo Maple Grove, while the other two pools have two apiece. Third-ranked Minnetonka and No. 10 Rochester are in they Gray Pool, while top-ranked Moorhead and No. 5 Edina will face off in Black Pool action.

 

CLICK HERE for the Goheen Tournament scores, schedules, standings and stats

 

Top 20 Minn-Kota Peewee Teams

#4 Woodbury Predators

#7 Chaska Chanhassen Stormhawks

#12 Prior Lake Savage Lakers

#13 Blaine Bengals

#17 Hermantown Hawks

#20 Stillwater Ponies

 

Top 20 Minn-Kota Bantam Teams

#1 Moorhead Spuds

#3 Minnetonka Skippers

#4 White Bear Lake Bears

#5 Edina Hornets

#6 Osseo Maple Grove

#7 Woodbury Predators

#8 Rogers Royals

#10 Rochester Mustangs

#11 Hermantown Hawks

#12 Rosemount Irish

#14 Stillwater Ponies

#15 Andover Huskies

#18 Wayzata Trojans

 

 

The Steel City Girls Invitational

Play began at the Steel City Girls Invitational the morning of Friday, Jan. 17 and runs through Jan. 20 at Baierl Ice Complex in Warrendale, Pa., and Roy McKnight Ice Center in Pittsburgh. Both rinks have LiveBarn feeds.

The tournament features a total of 32 Girls Tier 2 teams competing across four age groups. There are five 12U teams, seven 14U teams, 12 16U teams and eight 19U teams. Teams representing 14 states and one Canadian province are participating.

Steel City has teams playing in each age bracket. Selects teams are ranked No. 7 in the USA Girls 14U Tier 2 rankings, 21^st in 16U and 13^th in 19U.

Joining the Selects in the 14U Division are the No. 39 West Dundee Leafs, while the seventh-ranked West Seneca Wings, 13^th-ranked Philadelphia Jr. Flyers and 11^th-ranked South Pittsburgh Rebellion sent their 16U teams. The 19U field includes the No. 11 Amherst Lady Knights, No. 9 Badger City, No. 27 Princeton Tiger Lillies, No. 29 North Shore Warhawks and No. 37 Grand Rapids Griffins.

 

CLICK HERE for the Steel City Girls Invitational scores, schedules, standings & stats