Blue Jackets stay perfect, win title
Kenn Rodriguez | For The New Mexican
Posted: Sunday, February 28, 2010 - 3/1/10
RIO RANCHO — It was a match of two champions when the Santa Fe Blue Jackets met up with the Los Alamos Hilltoppers in the New Mexico Interscholastic Ice Hockey League's "King of the Hill" championship game Sunday at Blades Multiplex,
Behind two goals by Mark Jurgens and a goal and two assists by Jackson Spingler, the Blue Jackets cruised to a 5-1 win over their Norteño rivals to claim the bragging rights title as well as remain undefeated on the season with a record of 21-0-3.
"We're the first Santa Fe team to go undefeated, so that's big," captain Larson Walker said.
Santa Fe, a composite team made of players from the City Different, defeated the composite team from Albuquerque Cibola 2-1 Sunday morning for the composite team title.
Los Alamos defeated Taos High School 4-1 Sunday for the championship in the tournament for "pure" teams, made up solely of players from a single high school.
"It wasn't the same flavor as last year because there wasn't one state tournament, but we can look at going undefeated as a big feat, as well as winning the title," said Blue Jackets head coach Paul DeVincentis. "(This afternoon) was fun and it's bragging rights."
Los Alamos defeated the Ice Tigers, outshooting Taos 33-16. Chase Havemann scored two goals, including the game-winner. Neel Gupta and Kyle Barich-Mooday each added a goal, while goalkeeper Devin Grider had 15 saves.
"To be honest, our Super Bowl was this morning when we played Taos," said Los Alamos head coach Scott Havemann. "We're really good buddies with the players from Santa Fe and we'd had three games already today so it gave us a chance to play all of our seniors."
Taos' Hank Harter scored the lone goal for the Ice Tigers in the championship game of the double-elimination tournament.
In the composite championship, Santa Fe's Craig Parry scored two goals, including the game-winner, as the Blue Jackets outshot Cibola by a narrow 21-17 margin and goalkeeper Jordan Fuentes managed 16 saves in the win.
"It's a good feeling," Spingler said of winning titles in the last four season. "It's going to be hard because we're losing three of our four defensemen. We'll need some guys to step up."
WELCOME TO
SANTA FE YOUTH HOCKEY ASSOCIATION
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