Without a doubt! (BTW did I say 2-5? sorry it was 2-3. 5 games total, must have had a brain fart while typing!)

They beat Carolina Hurricanes AAA and Affton Americans AA, and lost to Blue Jackets AAA, St Louis Selects AAA and Hurricanes (consolation game).

In 2009 our boys went to the Nike/Bauer Invitational in Chicago (we missed the deadline for 2010!). They had 2 divisions, AAA and Elite. We were in the AAA and the competition was solid. We went 2-2 that weekend but did not move past the pool play. The 2 teams we beat were evenly paired with us and the 2 teams we lost too were VERY good. Sun County Panthers 98's were impressive.

This tournament in Nashville only has 1 division, but again the teams varied. My son's team is listed as AA, and one of our wins was against another AA team, the Affton Americans. I think TPH Thunder (the tourney hosts) are teir 1 AAA.

So at least as far as this Nashville tournament, the teams were not exactly evenly matched, but our boys knew what they were getting into. Same with the Affton Americans, they are striving to take that next step up to Teir 1 as well.

Our boys' coach tries to get the boys into games and tournaments with higer skilled teams as often as possible. They have a very short bench, only 11 skaters and 2 goalies, so our boys are pushed to the limit every game. And they can still hang with teams like the Ohio Blue Jackets, they only beat us 4-3 I think. It was a close game.

The problem is that Tier 1 teams don't like to play Tier 2 teams very often. So we look for tournaments like Nashville to test our boys.

My son has said he would be just as happy being ranked 45th in Tier 1 hockey as he is being ranked 17th in Tier 2. He is considering trying out for the Ohio Blue Jackets next year, at the very least to see where he stands against that type of program.
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Mike, it's the D1 team he was with.

He's there for another day then heads home.
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Have not been to a game since the 24th... Feels like FOREVER!

Heading down South to try to pull a win this evening....'bout time...:-)
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The boys got back to action today.
Micahs goal streak is intact. Had a beautiful breakaway goal never stopped moving his feet even when he shot. Nice to see at his age, most kids are either skating or shooting, not doing both at the same time. Takes his goal total to 8 on the season. Had the camcorder on almost the whole game. Guess what happened when I shut it off. Faaaaaaaack!
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Tomorrow we are playing at HP Pavilon where the Sharks play.
They do this once a year for the kids.

Will make sure to take pics and leave the camcorder running the whole time. Will have family there hopefully micah gets jacked up and skates his arse off.
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QTF
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Well today I recorded the whole game. On the last shift of the game micah scores a beautiful wrister to tie the game and keep his team from losing . Al I got it on tape and will be posting. Also going to try to post some clips showing his speed. He definetly had his wheels today.
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NICE! Can't wait for the clips....


Rough night on our end.... Kids looked a half step slow and couldn't get anything going after the first, where I thought they played okay.
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Hahaha oh the camcorder fun! lol.

Always a fun experience to play on NHL ice, sens do that here A LOT for the kids.

Our boys have a bunch of nights off without games, but 3 straight practices... see what we can do!
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Last night was not a grand success, but the Little One was sure happy to get back to "Start Smart" today....

Some training/stretching -

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Drills and then a scrimmage....

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Someone was pretty excited to sneak one in....:-)

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Awesome EJ.
Kind of pissed my camcorder isnt the best, but you can still see what happens. He lifted the shot, but you just cant tell in the video. You can see in the video he went to the net looking for the puck and got the pass. We have been teaching the boys to go to the front of the net and look for a pass. Micah has taken well to this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UJ3b...=youtube_gdata
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http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=14005526

Grizzlies(local ECHL team) are having a benefit game for Dave Brown tonight. To generate interest, a local news station did a piece on Dave that I linked to above.
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Oh...and Murray Hockey's Biggest Fan made it to the Maverik Center.... Note, she is wearing her personalized official Murray Hockey warm up suit... (guess just the top, the bottom is too big:-))
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I wish I had my video camera today, it was a classic moment:

I was working the clock and doing music at my son's game, the whistle blew, stopping the play and he came over to the bench, talking to the coach. I couldn't hear what he was saying but the whistle blew and the puck was about to be dropped and the coach yelled at him to get back out there.

I was trying to pay attention to the puck-drop to stop the music and start the clock so I missed exactly what happened. My buddy in the booth with me keeping score said "Your kid just lost a tooth!" I found out later that he had it in his hand when he came over to the bench and when the coach yelled at him to get back out there, he just threw the tooth on the floor of the bench area and went back to hockey.

Luckily it wasn't a permanent tooth. We didn't find out that he threw it on the floor til after the game, we just assumed it was out on the ice somewhere. I was telling the Refs to keep an eye out for a tooth and they just laughed and said "good luck with that!"
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Utah Grizzlies? Oh noes.... GO Wranglers!
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Yes, Utah Grizzlies:-)

83 penalty minutes last night for the Grizz last night....66 for the Thunder. Everyone in the starting line-up for both teams dropped the gloves 2 seconds into the game last night....and it didn't end there.

Still have 1 point on the Wranglers, but not for long if they don't start playing better.
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GREAT STORY Scott... Yes, VERY lucky it wasn't a permanent tooth....
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Nice pics EJ.
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