Nov 11, 2014 | Dave Laughlin | 997 views
Silver Medals in Notre Dame!
KJR Minor Peewee MD Blue boarded a bus and headed west to South Bend, Indiana and the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Battling hard all weekend long, the Rangers fell short in the Gold Medal Game vs a strong team from metro Chicago.
KJR was privileged to receive a tour of the new Compton Ice Arena on the campus of Notre Dame. The players and families saw, first hand, the state-of-the-art game ice, locker room, practice facility, weight room, etc. There is so much more to running a Division One hockey program than just Friday and Saturday games. It was awesome. From there, we hit that same ice and despite the shaky start, KJR dismantled Pittsburgh 7-2.
Saturday morning, we woke up early and our road trip continued down to the Culver Military Academy to face-off vs the Northwest Chargers from metro Chicago. I swear the ice was as big as the Fairview Mall parking lot. LOL! The Rangers entered the third period with a 3-1 lead but the Chargers battled back to make the final a 3-3 tie.
The afternoon tilt vs St. Peters (greater St. Louis) was never in question as we skated to a 6-1 victory, setting up a showdown with the Chargers in the final.
Like the day before, KJR jumped out to an early lead and hit the first intermission up 1-0. The Chargers were older and bigger and that did play a huge role in the final two periods, hammering home four unanswered goals to finish off the scoring.
Despite the loss, the weekend should be considered memorable to all, on and off the ice. We played well, we know where we need to improve...and learned all that while taking in one of the most historical universities and military prep schools in the country.