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An Alabama team recently brought home a national championship.
Nothing new for the Yellowhammer State, right?
Well, this is new. It was in hockey.
The 16-year-old Alabama Thunder won the USA Hockey Youth Tier II Championship. Comprised primarily of players from the Huntsville and Birmingham area, the team was the first Alabama team to win a USA Hockey championship at any age level.
It’s unbelievable, said Thunder forward Miles Daehn. Especially coming from the south, everyone suspects us.
The Thunder went 5-0-0 in the championship tournament in Amherst, NY, including a 5-3 win over Charleston, SC in the title game.
The Huntsville-based team is head coached by Lance West, a former coach and player at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The Chargers were an NCAA power in the mid-1990s, winning two NCAA Division II national championships and losing in two championship games. The school also won three hockey national championships in 1982-84.
We tried to build a program where the kids could stay close to home, West said. I’m excited for the guys to get their first championship.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first period of the championship game, the Thunder saw the Jr. Stingrays tie it in the second period.
But Daehn scored the eventual winner in the third period.
I was in the offensive zone just grinding it out, he said. I saw the puck and shot it into the net and saw it go in.
Ashton Lambert scored a hat trick for the Thunder and Owen McDougal also scored. Goalkeeper Kristofer Hatch made 18 saves.
The clincher came with 49 seconds left when Charleston, trailing 4-3, tried to pull its goaltender. Lambert shot the puck into an almost empty goal as the goalie scrambled to get back into the goal. This gave Lambert a hat-trick and sixth goal of the tournament.
It was what I expected,” West said of the championship game. It was back and forth.
Proud to be a part of it.
Red Line Editorial contributed to this report.
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