92's Look To Test Themselves vs. Ontarios Best

The OHL Cup Showcase Tournament this week provides our 92's with a great opportunity to test themselves against the best that Ontario has to offer in front of hundreds of scouts from the OHL, NCAA, and Tier II junior.

The Ottawa 67's, our first game opponent, feature highly touted 6 foot 4 defenseman Erik Gubrandson projected to be the first defenseman taken in the 2008 OHL draft.

The Jr. Canadiens, our second game opponent, feature highly touted forward John McFarland projected to be the first forward and first player overall taken in the 2008 OHL draft. In addition the Jr. Canadiens are the top ranked team in the final OHL Cup Rankings, are the champions of the GTHL, and are the top ranked team in all of North America.

NOTE 1: Our Belle Tire team became the first American team in 3 years to defeat the Jr. Canadiens in the Whitlby Silver Sticks semi-final game this past November.

NOTE 2: Overall on the season Belle Tire is 7-1-2-1 versus the 19 other OHL Cup participants which breaks down as:

1-0-0-0 record against the Rochester Alliance, Halton Hurricanes, Toronto Redwings, Toronto Jr. Canadiens, Toronto Young Nats, and York-Simcoe Express.

0-1-1-1 record against Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs,

0-0-1-0 against Greator Kingston Frontenacs.

NEW: OHL Cup Schedule Finalized

Thursday, March 20th
Rink #2 8:30 AM
vs. Ottawa 67's

Thursday, March 20th
Rink #1 4:00 PM
vs. Toronto Jr. Canadians

Friday, March 21st
Rink #1 9:00 AM
vs. Northern Ontario Champion

Saturday, March 22nd
Rink #2 1:00 PM
vs. Halton Hurricanes

Saturday, March 22nd
7:00 PM / 7:30 PM
Quarterfinals

Sunday, March 23rd
8:00 AM / 10:00 AM
Semifinals

Sunday, March 23rd
5:00 PM
Gold Medal Game

Belle Tire Eliminated By Little Caesars 2-0

In what was a very intense, well played, and dead even game back and forth all evening, Little Caesars found the back of the net twice to defeat Belle Tire and eliminate us from the Michigan State Playoffs.

Despite the loss it has been a very good season for the members of the team who have accumulated a 39-19-8-3 record to date with the 92's on the team carrying the torch into the OHL Cup in less than two weeks.

On Another Note: In other State Playoff action - I previously posted about my former high school baseball coach Frank Orlando ("Coach O") from Detroit Country Day School who is also the head coach of the school's girls basketball team. Orlando is in the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of Fame for both sports. I am very happy to report that Orlando won yet another state title this evening as his Lady Yellowjackets captured the Class B State Championship.

Belle Tire Advances Back To State Semifinal Rematch With Little Caesars

Exactly one year ago this weekend, Coach Askerov's Belle Tire Wizards were eliminated by Little Caesars 4-3 in the Michigan Bantam Major AAA State Semifinals.

Little Caesars defeated favored Honeybaked in the Finals the next day and captured the State Championship.

Saturday evening Askerov's team will again square off against Little Caesars in a rematch to decide which team will advance to play the winner of Honeybaked-Compuware in the State Championship Game on Sunday.

Belle Tire earned a second trip in as many seasons to the state semis by beating the Detroit Flames 4-3 on Friday Evening.

Belle Tire Eliminates Victory Honda 3-2 in OT; Advances to Quarterfinal Game

Technically there is no quarterfinal game in the Michigan State AAA Tournament.

However, the scores of Monday and Tuesday Evening Round Robin games have essentially resulted in the Belle Tire vs. Detroit Flames game Friday Night becoming a State Playoff Quarterfinal.

This is due to the fact that the winner of our game with the Detroit Flames advances to the semifinals with 4 or more points in the standings and has the advantage in all tiebreakers as the only team in the division other than Compuware with at least two wins in Round Robin play.

So thats how it sets up ... 3 games left to go ... sudden death elimination.

Former Wizards Fill State Playoffs

The Michigan AAA State Playoffs is always a great big reunion in the local hockey community.

Since this is my fifth and final season managing the Wizards hockey club as an independent organization, or as affliated with Belle Tire, I appreciate this years tournament more than any other in the past.

Monday Night I had the opportunity to watch all the games all evening from 4:00 PM until Midnght on both rinks, and, while doing so, took rollcall of all the many players playing in this years AAA State Playoffs from teams other than our U-16 team who once played on our Wizards teams during our five years of existence as a hockey club.


Former Wizards Rollcall:

95 Wizards
Jay Helstowski (BT)
Aaron Porter (BT)
Reed Whiteside (BT)
Cody Cowart (BT)
Grant Rushlau (BT)
Brenden Torolski (BT)
Kyle Perkowski (96BT)
Gannon McLeskey (LC)
Drew Summitt (VH)
Vinny Dabrowa (VH)
Logan Lambdin (VH)

94 Wizards
Zach Bishop (VH)
Jimmy Howe (LC)
Ben Israel* (HB)
Josh Henke* (LC)
Max Iafrate* (Comp)
* Played On 93 Wizards Team

93 Wizards
Jordon Fox (BT)
Alex Globke (HB)
Andrew Savage (HB)
Austin Carroll* (LC)
Jonathon Lacoste* (Comp)
* Played On 92 Wizards Team

92 Wizards
Austin Watson (Comp)
Charles Williams (Comp)
Aaron Scheppelman (HB)
Ryan Decaires (DB)
Derek Vandelinder (DF)
Jordan Oesterle (DF)
Garth Kassner (DF)
Nico Sierra (LC)
David Torchia (VH)

91 Wizards
Justin Portilo (DF)
Ben Globke (DF)
Sheldon Taylor (VH)
Joey Sova (HB)

State Championship There For The Taking

Heading into the Michigan U-16 AAA State Tournament there are only two good presumptions any player, coach, or fan can actually make:

(1) No team is favored to win.

and

(2) The team that is the most unselfish, most disciplined, and most energetic will probably win.

... for the sake of our best possible memories of the 2007-2008 season lets hope that team is Belle Tire.