CHICAGO – When the latest youth hockey rankings were released just before the 2022 Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championships, there were a couple of familiar faces sitting atop the leaderboard at the Tier I 14U division.

Ultimately, championships are won on the ice and not in power rankings. There is little doubt that Shattuck-St. Mary’s and the Chicago Mission have proven this week that they have earned their top billing.

And after all the prognostication, analytics and number crunching, the only thing left is for these two youth hockey powerhouse programs to face off with the title on the line.

“Deep down side, I was hoping we were going to play them. I love good games. I love when teams come ready to work and obviously Shattuck does, and we will be ready for them,” Mission head coach Christian Hmura said after his team’s dominating defensive performance against a talented Green Bay Jr. Gamblers team.

“It’s exactly the way you’d want it drawn up from the rankings and stuff like that. You’ve got number one playing number two. I think our guys are excited. Everybody’s kind of rolling and I like where we’re sitting, so it’ll be a great game.”

They’ll need to put together another strong effort to knock the defending 14U champs off their pedestal. Shattuck showed the resiliency of a true champion in bouncing back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat a gutsy Rochester (N.Y.) Saints team, 4-3, in a shootout.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I was a little nervous after the first period,” said Christian Bragnalo, the head coach of Shattuck. “We obviously didn’t have the start we wanted and we dug ourselves a hole. That was absolutely great resiliency by our players. They kept playing and we ended up tying it up and going to a shootout and winning. It was a great job by them.”

You hold a team as talented as the Junior Gamblers to five shots, including none in the third period, you know you’ve outdid yourself on the defensive side of the ledger.

Mission goaltender Bjorn Bronas was the loneliest players in the building, facing only two shots in the first, three in the second and none in the third. That’s all thanks to a great game plan that the Mission coaches drew up to shut down some of the Gamblers talented forwards while pressuring the defense with a relentless forecheck.

“Part of our defensive mentality was to be hard on pucks and force them to make decisions they don’t want to make or were not ready to make. I think that all fared well for us today,” Hmura said.

Ethan Baker and Jacob Hutchen staked the Mission to a 2-0 lead through two periods and the defense did the rest. Asher Barnett and Ronald Bender added power play goals in the third period but the game was well in hand by that point.

“If we play our style and make sure that we control the game from that perspective we’re a pretty good team,” Hmura said.

They’ll need a repeat performance tomorrow if they’re going to snatch the crown from the heads of the 14U kings from Minnesota.