one-goal victory in a previous game against
the Ice Dogs. “In the second game we got
some (pucks) through.” Sean Flannery, who
actually helped organize summer recreational
pickup for young players at FHCI, concurred
about the fair competition and some of
the kids’ responses to playing in their first
tournament games.
“A lot of the rec players, for one reason or
another, decided not to play travel,” he noted.
“To give them an opportunity to play in a
tournament with a lot of games was fun for
them.”
Jim Jardine, the U12 Ice Dogs coach, described
it as a memorable experience and registered
his team to play in the December rec tourney
as well.
“I thought it was a great idea,” he said.
“Normally those kids don’t get those
opportunities. It really only took one game for
us for everything to come together.”
Especially so for Alex Linick, who mostly plays
roller hockey and street hockey and scored his
first goal ever in ice hockey during the series.
Like the other coaches, Flannery aims to put
another rec team together for future tourneys
at that level.
“I think every year it’s going to get bigger,” he
said. “It was just a positive experience. It
was real exciting for all the coaches and
parents and players.”
Coaches of all four finalists concurred that
the rec tourney was a success and they
planned to enter their respective teams in the
December series. Doug Radigan, who plays in
adult leagues and has coached several travel
teams out of Ellenton, put together a rec team
from that Manatee County rink. He expressed
satisfaction that the rec players got a tourney
of their own.
“It absolutely was fantastic in the sense
of where those kids are at in hockey,” said
Radigan, who grew up playing hockey in Rhode
Island. “They were so excited. It was good to
see those kids out there and for them to say
they were in a tournament.”
“I think it was great,” added Tim Abdullah, who
coached the U12 Ice Wolves. “Some of them
might have done other tournaments, but a lot
of them hadn’t. One thing that stood out was,
‘Oh my gosh, three games in one day.’”
The coaches said the level of competition was
fairly even and that there were literally no
blowouts. That set fine with them, as well as
players and parents, who preferred to see and
take part in competitive games throughout the
tourney.
The outcome of the Ice Wolves’ 6-3 win over
the Ice Dogs turned out to be not as close as
Abdullah would have expected it to be.
“Surprisingly so, because we played them the
game before and it was intense,” he said of a
Rosters for the four co-ed finalists
were as follows:
U14 Ice Wolves — Ryan Norris, Davin
Sabo, Holden Smith, David Berry, Logan
Truso, Isaiah Johnson, Preston Pohnel,
Tyler Smith, Alex Linick, Jayden Whitman,
Sanjan Gadde, Tucker Mckinney, David
Mauradian, Tom Jaques and coach Sean
O’Flannery.
U14 ELLENTON EELS — Garret Day, Jacob
Estep, James Gelvin, Adam Imre (GOALIE),
Raymond Jenkins, Karel Kunik, Levi Serbin,
Conner Maoney, John Moschella, Keegan
Radigan, Colton Segneri, Torrin States and
coach Doug Radigan.
U12 ICE WOLVES — Andrew Karch, Jason
Abdullah, Drew Cross, Memphis Binkley,
Max Kaatze, Jude Jenkins, Jonathan
Cholnik, Cayden Faircloth, Brook Feocco,
Mike Lutes, Riley Behen and coach Tim
Abdullah.
U12 ICE DOGS — Emmanuel Lekkas, Mary
Nucete, Alex Soto, Nolan Soto, Ben Jardine,
Alex Marchese, Delaney Michael, Kalli
Pastis, Natalie Andelova, Bryce Besecker,
Katlyn Poweska and coach Jim Jardine.
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