Hamilton, Flagstaff win titles
Notre Dame captures Div. 3 ice hockey crown
The Division 1 and 2 Arizona high school hockey title games proved to be thrillers Saturday, with Hamilton taking the Division 1 title and the Flagstaff Avalanche taking home the Division 2 title in games played before large crowds at Scottsdale Ice Den.
The Division 1 game featured the No. 3 seeded Hamilton Huskies downing the No. 4 Chaparral Firebirds, 7-5.
The Huskies had upset No. 2 Pinnacle in the semifinal the previous week, while Chaparral upset top-seeded Notre Dame Prep to get to the final.
Huskies’ forward Carter Newlin led his team with four goals in Saturday final and was named the game’s most valuable player.
“I just knew right from when we woke up, I knew we were going to be state champs,” Newlin said.
The game started out with Hamilton scoring three unanswered goals to lead 3-0 with about 13 minutes to play in the second period. Chaparral then fought back with four unanswered goals of its own, including two by forward Benjamin Eddleblute, to take a 4-3 lead with 1:03 left in period No. 2.
Newlin then scored with 0:30 left in the second to tie the game at four heading into the final period. In the third, it was Newlin striking first to give the Huskies the 5-4 lead with 11:41 to go. The game went scoreless for nearly 10 minutes before Kaiden Willa scored to seemingly put the game out of reach with just over two minutes to play.
However, Chaparral’s Brandon Walton scored with 1:26 to go in the game to give the Firebirds hope. This hope lasted just 16 seconds as Newlin scored an empty-netter with 1:10 to play to seal the title for Hamilton.
“Oh it’s awesome,” Hamilton goaltender Hayden Manning said. “You go to practice, you put the work in the gym or the games. You do everything you can to try to get yourself in a position to get a state championship...”
Since some of Chaparral’s players attend other schools, the team was not eligible for the pure-school nationals. As a result, the Huskies had already qualified for that tournament with their win over Pinnacle. With the win over the Firebirds, Hamilton will go to pure school nationals in March as the Arizona state champions.
“I said to the guys, I don’t want to go to nationals as a loser because...you want to go as a winner,” Hamilton coach Peter Morris said. “I’m so proud of these guys. I really am.”
The Division 2 title game was another close one.
The Flagstaff Avalanche, a team made up of players from several northern Arizona high schools, defeated Pinnacle’s Division 2 squad 1-0 behind a shutout performance by goalie Dylan Bonfiglio, the game’s MVP.
“It feels ecstatic,” Bonfiglio said. “Like there’s nothing else I’d rather have than this moment in time in my life right now.”
Flagstaff coach Dan Carrick praised his goaltender.
“He’s been lights out all season long and to get a shut out in the championship game, it doesn’t get any better than that,” Carrick said.
The lone goal of the game was scored by Avalanche forward Preston Soderblom
with 5:34 to play.
“It feels awesome,” Soderblom said. “But it wasn’t my effort, it was my team’s effort and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them and I couldn’t do without them.”
Division 3 and JV
The Division 1 and Division 2 were not the only state titles taking place over the weekend.
On Sunday, the Division 3 and junior varsity state titles took place.
In the Division 3 game, Notre Dame Prep defeated Desert Vista 3-0. In the JV game, Chaparral defeated the Basha Perry Bears 4-3.
Reach the reporter at Jesse.Morrison@arizonarepublic.com or at (480) 268-1903. Follow his Twitter @Jesse_Morrison6
Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com, today.