[ad_1]
In the dubious situations of the ice hockey season, Edwardsville coach Jason Walker found his tigers among old friends in 2021.
And while conditions changed from the last time the Tigers played for the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey, the end result was familiar – the Edwardsville Championship.
Walker has been there at the EHS Championships at both the MVCHA and the Mid-States Club Hockey Association. And the one his team captured in 2021 made him both proud and grateful.
“This season was tough with all the strangers,” Walker said. “We spent a lot of time wondering if we would get a chance to play.
“We’re grateful we got to play. The team did a great job focusing all through.”
Edwardvs pulled his top university from the Mississippi Valley Club Hockey Association and moved to the Mid-States Club Hockey Association in early 2016-17. The transition came after Edwardsville won the fifth straight league championship in 2015-16.
The coronavirus delayed the start of the MVCHA season, pushing it all the way to spring from the beginning of the traditional fall, and it also forced Edwardsville to bring its top university team back into the league for just one season.
The Tigers went 5-0 in a pandemic “tournament” format used by the MVCHA. They crossed the opposition 53-2.
“It was nice to play some local teams and old competitors that we missed playing last seasons,” Walker said. “We are excited to return to normal and the Central United States for the coming season.”
After Granite City swept the Triad and Edwardsville swept the Columbia Division into their finals, the teams rushed.
The Tigers cruised to a 4-1 victory in the first game, which included 25 penalties. The EHS victory ended the 27-match winning streak for Granite City.
In the second match, Granite City jumped to a 3-0 lead, but the Tigers gathered to equalize the 10 seconds left in the regulation and then won the shooting.
It was the 12th MVCHA championship in the program in history for the Tigers, who have won 58 live MVCHA games with their top team.
A month after the MVCHA title, the Tigers made the trip to the U.S. Hockey High School Championships in Omaha, Nebraska, where they went 1-2.
“The citizens’ trip was great for us as a young team, ”Walker said. “We need to have experience playing great teams in an atmosphere that makes us better going forward.”
|
Sources 2/ https://www.thetelegraph.com/insider/article/PREP-YEAR-IN-REVIEW-Hockey-Coach-of-the-Year-16331317.php The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
[ad_2]