A champion will be crowned early next week at the 2021 USA Hockey 15 Only National Championship that takes place just outside of Dallas in Euless, Texas, at Children’s Health StarCenter.
This year’s national championship starts Wednesday and runs through Monday of next week. Two teams from New England — Mid Fairfield Rangers and Mount Saint Charles — will be present and looking to add to their trophy collections. The former eked out a win in a shootout to claim bragging rights in the New England District Tournament a few weeks ago in Exeter, N.H.
As previously mentioned in this space, Massachusetts will be without a representative at the USA Hockey 15 Only National Championship, thanks to the district’s unwillingness to have a tournament.
The field of 16 teams competing for a national championship at the 15 Only division are broken down into four pools. Mid Fairfield is the top team in the Olympic Pool and received one of the easier roads to the quarterfinals that begin Saturday. Mount Saint Charles will have a significantly more difficult path to making it out of pool play.
Pool Play — USA
Chicago Mission, Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Buffalo Junior Sabres, Sioux Falls Power
After watching the Chicago Mission win the 15 Only Top 20 Invitational a few months ago in Warren, Mich., it’s hard for me steer clear of Chicago as the favorites to win in Texas. The Mission moves the puck well and seems like a well-oiled machine. Shattuck-St. Mary’s has a good team, and the Buffalo Junior Sabres have a couple of solid prospects. However, neither have the star power, chemistry and depth to compete with Chicago.
Up front, the Mission are led by forwards Carter Slaggert, Gabriel Perrault, Andrew Kuzma, Joseph Willis and Dashel Oliver. On defense, Paul Fischer and Nathan Williams are cogs.
Shattuck is missing a few ’05s who play on the school’s 16-U and prep teams. Still, the Sabres are a formidable group. The top forwards are Cooper Pierson, whose older brother Jackson plays for UNH, and Hunter Anderson. On defense, Zeev Buium is an electric puck mover.
Forwards Ryan Smith and Dylan McFadden are the top producers for the Junior Sabres. Charlie Kinsman is the blueliner of note. Cooper Rautenstrauch isn’t the prototypical big goaltender of the modern era, but he’s well-regarded within the age group.
Pool Play — Olympic
Mid Fairfield, Team Alaska, North Jersey Avalanche, Team Wisconsin
Mid Fairfield has six players who have been invited to attend next month’s USA Hockey NTDP Evaluation Camp. The team, coached by Marty St. Louis, drew a favorable group in pool play.
Forwards Sal Guzzo, Brian Nicholas and Ryan Fine and defensemen Aram Minnetian, Drew Fortescue and Lucas St. Louis all made the evaluation camp. Goaltender Ryan Sanborn was in the mix for a spot. Other key players are forwards Logan Renkowski and Eli Friedman.
North Jersey Avalanche has a solid team, led by goaltender Stephen Peck and forwards Pasha Baranchik, Brady Silverman, Adam Zidlicki and Jacob Miller. James Giuffre, Griffin Erdman and Patrick Walsh also are solid players who have missed significant time with the organization’s 16-U team or with prep school lockdowns. John Michael Danks, Alex Bosland, Brian Lonergan and Matthew Desiderio will patrol the blue line.
Pool Play — NHL
Honeybaked, Florida Alliance, Pittsburgh Penguins Elite, Mount Saint Charles
This is the group of death, as far as I’m concerned. All four teams have some really good players. Honeybaked is the team to beat, but the other three teams have players to watch.
Honeybaked is led by forward Charlie Cerrato, defenseman Zach Schulz and goaltender Trey Augustine. All are invited to next month’s NTDP Evaluation Camp and are among the top players at their position in the 2005 birth year.
Pittsburgh Penguins Elite always play hard and brings a lot of grit. The top forwards are Brandon Svoboda and Justin Stupka. On defense, Luke Malbouef leads the way. The team’s goaltender, Zack Ferris, is one of the best in the country.
Mount Saint Charles has two solid lines up front, but its defense will be an area of concern against the elite teams in the country. Watch for Chris Pelosi, Tanner Adams, Eli Cardilli, Jake Gutwirth, Christian Venticinque and Patrick Murphy to provide some offensive punch.
The Florida Alliance don’t have the depth of the other teams, but forward Connor Brown and goaltender Michael Chambre are in the mix for a spot on the NTDP.
Pool Play — Liberty
Compuware, Chicago Young Americans, Minnesota Blue Ox, Dallas Stars Elite
Compuware and Chicago Young Americans appear to be the top teams in this group. Both squads are well-coached and compete hard.
Chicago Young Americans has a very good blue line, led by Tri-City Storm tender Andrew Strathman. Daniel Johnson, Jack Gricus and Aidan Shirey add to the best top four in all of 15O hockey. Offensively, Chris O’Flaherty, Brendan Fields and Ryan Morgan lead the way.
I haven’t seen a team play as hard and heavy as Compuware in all my viewings across the country this winter. Forward Mikey Burchill’s speed has him in the mix for a NTDP spot. Thomas Neu, Jaden Johnson, Jett Kozman and Josh Diegel are other forwards of note. Brady O’Malley is one of the better defensive defensemen in the age group.
Goaltender Hampton Slukynsky is the top prospect on the Minnesota Blue Ox. Dallas Stars Elite is one of the few Midget teams I haven’t seen live in 2020-21, so I can’t speak on them yet.
