The 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth and Girls National Championships are set for thrilling finishes throughout the country following Saturday’s semifinals action at 11 different host sites.

On Sunday, 23 teams will experience the thrill of winning a national title at the Chipotle-USA Hockey National Championships. Every game will live stream and be available on-demand, exclusively at USAHockeyTV.com. 

Below is a preview of the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth and Girls Tier I National Championship title games. 

Little Caesars (MI) and Islanders Hockey Club (MA) will clash Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 13O National Championship at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

Both teams won their groups with 4-1 records. The Islanders advanced from the National Division after beating the Minnesota Lakers (MN) 7-4 Saturday in the final group game to finish with identical records, but the Islanders gained an extra point in the standings due to a prior overtime loss.

Each team is led by a dynamic scorer.

Little Caesars’ Drystan Thomas has a tournament-best nine goals and is one of four players to share the points lead with 12. Brayden Lee and Micah Schwartz each have five assists for Little Caesars. Defense has been a calling card for Little Caesars as well, allowing nine goals in five games, featuring shutouts in the first two games at nationals. Liam Kelly and Andrew Sawinski have posted the second- and third-best goals-against averages at 1.71 and 1.95, respectively. Kelly has an .893 save percentage in four games, including three starts, while Sawinski has an .833 save percentage in his two starts.

Mason McGovern has been the go-to scorer for the Islanders as he has eight goals and is also tied for the tournament lead with 12 points along with teammate Christopher Welby, who leads the Islanders with seven assists. Welby had a hat trick in the final game of group play to give him five for the tournament. Goaltender Brody Dickinson has a 3.01 GAA and .861 save percentage while starting every game at nationals.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 9:15 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Youth Tier I 13O homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

The Minnesota Blue Ox (MN) face off with the Minuteman Flames (MA) on Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 14U National Championship at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan.

This will be a rematch from group play in which the Blue Ox edged the Flames 2-1 Wednesday — which is the Flames’ only loss. 

Minnesota advanced to the title game with a 4-3 overtime win over Little Caesars (MI) in a battle of undefeated teams. Meanwhile, the Minutemen knocked off previously unbeaten Shattuck-St. Mary’s (MN) 4-1 thanks to a three-goal third period.

Joseph Cullen leads Minnesota with five goals and eight points, while Henry Buttweiler, who scored the overtime winner in the semifinals, has a team-best five assists and is second with seven points. Cullen is one of four Blue Ox with three assists. Will Arnold has seen a bulk of the time in goal, posting a 2.25 goals-against average and .893 save percentage in four games, including three starts. Lucas Mills has made the other two starts and has a 3.20 GAA and .839 save percentage.

Chris Sawyer and Ethan Machado have paced the Flames offensively. Sawyer has five goals and two assists and scored twice in the third period of the semifinals. Machado has notched four goals and two assists and had the other goal in Saturday’s decisive third period. Will Torres has been a rock in goal, with a 1.59 GAA and .932 save percentage, including a 21-save shutout in Friday’s quarterfinals. Both stats are the best among goalies who have played at least three games.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Youth Tier I 14U homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

The Jr. Mounties (RI) will take on the Chicago Reapers (IL) for the title Sunday at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 15O National Championships at Bob Suter's Legacy20 Arena in Middleton, Wisconsin.

The Jr. Mounties advanced to the title game with a 5-3 win over Little Caesars (MI) in Saturday’s semifinals, while the Reapers edged the Long Island Gulls (NY) 3-2. The Jr. Mounties have won four in a row after dropping their opener at nationals. Meanwhile, the Reapers are 4-1 and have won three straight.

The Jr. Mounties have a powerful offense, scoring a tournament-high 27 goals, including 11 in one game. Stephen Cover’s eight goals are the best at nationals and his 14 points are tied for the most. Teammate Rocco Pelosi has seven goals, including a hat trick in the semifinals. Nathaniel Chizik has been the primary goaltender for the Jr. Mounties, posting a 2.25 goals-against average and .845 save percentage in four games. Chizik also has one of two goalie assists in the tournament.

Chicago is led by Tyler Cooper’s seven goals and 10 points, while Wyatt Finkenkeller has five assists. The Reapers got a late third-period goal from Drew Brierley, his first at nationals, to prevail in the semifinals. Lucas Johnson has been the tournament’s top goalie with a 1.40 GAA, to go along with an .879 save percentage, which is third-best among goalies who have played multiple games.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 9 a.m. CT. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Youth Tier I 15O homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

Shattuck-St. Mary’s (MN) will match up with Little Caesars (MI) on Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 16U National Championship at Bob Suter's Legacy20 Arena in Middleton, Wisconsin.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s was the lone unbeaten team to advance to Saturday’s semifinals, where it beat the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite (PA) 2-1 in overtime to improve to 5-0. Little Caesars (4-1) survived a furious third period to edge the New Jersey Rockets (NJ) 5-4.

Emilio Bedoya scored his first goal of nationals to send Shattuck-St. Mary’s to the title game. Colin Grubb had tied the game for Shattuck-St. Mary’s with his first goal of the tournament. Both had three assists entering the game. Those are the types of contributions that put Shattuck-St. Mary’s in this position. Levi Harper has a team-best eight points, including seven assists, while Nolan Fitzhenry, Zane Torre and Ethan Sung are tied for the team lead with four goals to go along with seven points. Michael Iliff and Drake Owens split duties between the pipes. Iliff has posted the tournament-best goals-against average of 1.59 in three starts to go along with a .939 save percentage, while Owens has the No. 4 GAA at 2.50 and an .857 save percentage.

Judd Knauft notched a hat trick in the semifinals for Little Caesars with all three goals coming in the third period, including the go-ahead score with 6 minutes, 11 seconds remaining. He entered the game with no goals and two assists. Little Caesars features the three of the top four scorers at nationals. Ilya Kolmakov has 15 points, including a tournament-best 13 assists, while Andrei Molgachev has a nationals-leading eight goals among his 12 points and Lucca Cannata is tied for third with 10 points and is second with eight assists. Joseph Skidmore has been in goal for the bulk of nationals, posting a 2.55 GAA and a save percentage of .910.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CT. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Youth Tier I 16U homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

Shattuck-St. Mary’s (MN) and the Boston Jr. Eagles (MA) will square off Sunday in the championship game of the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 18U National Championship at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex after taking care of business Saturday in the semifinals.

Five different players scored for Shattuck-St. Mary’s and the team cruised to a 6-0 victory over the Ohio Blue Jackets (OH). 

Shattuck-St. Mary’s is a perfect 5-0 this week in Cranberry Township and the No. 1 seed in the 16-team tournament has shown off its tremendous depth throughout its undefeated run with 12 of its 20 skaters having scored at least one goal. 

“We have pure balance,” said Tom Ward, head coach for Shattuck-St. Mary’s. “We are lucky we can roll all lines so we don't have to gas all of our guys. They're all good players right now, very capable players and for our level. We're good with depth and lucky to have it.”

Shattuck-St. Mary’s opened up a 2-0 lead in the first period Saturday with goals from Ryder McDonald and Roberts Naudins and never looked back. 

McDonald got Shattuck started by rifling a shot that deflected off a defender and into the net 7:22 into the game, and Naudins then banged home a rebound with 1:50 remaining in the period. 

“It was a really nice pass by Jonathan Brown and then I kind of just walked in and I saw some space and got lucky it bounced off the shin pad,” McDonald said. “I didn't really even see where it went and was just happy it went in.”

Graham Jones made it 3-0 for Shattuck-St. Mary’s when he fired home a one-timer on the power play 5:27 into the second period. Alexander Donovan followed up with his own one-timer to give Shattuck-St. Mary’s a 4-0 lead when he buried a shot from the slot off a feed from Nolan Caffey. Henri Ament then extended the lead to five with his goal with 1:42 remaining in the second period.

McDonald then recorded his second goal of the game with 5:50 remaining.

Xavier Wendt was a steady presence in net for Shattuck-St. Mary’s, finishing with 28 saves to earn the shutout. 

“I mean we had fourth liners getting two goals today and our team played from the goal line out pretty dang good. I thought our goalie played pretty good too. Ohio had really good structure, like they were doing it in a way that was going to give us some problems, and I'm happy with our guys. We didn't try to put a square peg in a round hole and kind of moved the puck around and found our spots and moved with timing. I was happy with how the guys played.”

Shattuck-St. Mary’s is attempting to win a third straight national title at the Tier I 18U level, and this is the time of the week where the team’s depth may really have major dividends.

“This is different than bantam, these guys are young men, and it's a lot – 6 games in 6 days is a lot,” Ward concluded. “To be able to spread the workload out throughout your lineup is absolutely beneficial and this is when that pays off.” 

Only three members of this year’s team were part of the 18U team that won in Las Vegas last year, but some players, including McDonald, were part of the team that won a high school title last year at nationals. 

It just shows shows how well we are coached. everyone's on the same page. Everyone trusts everyone everyone knows what's going on, so it's a really big part of why we win.

“It would be super special to win again, this is what we play for all year,” McDonald concluded. “It’s the best feeling in the world and hopefully we can have that feeling again.” 

***

Billy and Teddy MacAusland spent hours of their childhood waking up early for hockey practices, skills sessions, and hopping in the car together for long drives to games.

On Saturday afternoon, the MacAusland brothers came up clutch for the Boston Jr. Eagles (MA) when their team needed them most, creating a new lifelong memory for the siblings in the process.

Billy MacAusland broke a 3-3 tie with 14:27 remaining in the third period to propel the Boston Jr. Eagles past Culver Academies (IN) 5-4 at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex and send the Eagles to the Tier I 18U National Championship title game. 

“I have two great linemates who were forechecking hard,” Billy MacAusland said. “(Kyle O’Leary) popped the puck to Brendan Keaveney and he made a nice pass to me, and I found a lane and put it in the back of the net.

“It's a great feeling playing with some of your best friends. There's nothing better.” 

MacAusland has been a goal-scoring machine in Cranberry Township this week, and he leads the Tier I 18U National Championship tournament with eight goals, while O’Leary leads the tournament with 13 points (2g, 11a). 

John Joyce, head coach of the Boston Jr. Eagles, said MacAusland has been scoring big goals all season long in Massachusetts. 

“He’s been big for us all year,” Joyce said. “He was big in prep school (Noble & Greenough School) this year. We have a different model than some of these guys, we all go play high school hockey and prep, we come back together. 

“We don’t practice a ton. We practiced three times before we came out here.”

Like Shattuck-St. Mary’s, Boston is also undefeated this week in Cranberry Township (5-0). 

It was Billy’s older brother, Teddy, who tied the game at 3-3 for Boston 40 seconds after Tobias Tilley had put Culver Academies up 3-2 with five minutes remaining in the second period with a power-play goal.

“It's all about keeping your composure and we kept it within what we can do and stick within our game,” MacAusland said. “We know that we're a skilled team. We're a special team and if we just play our game things are going to go the right way, and it did just a couple shifts later. To get that goal back was huge for the momentum and it was a great pass from Jake (Tavares). I just happened to be in the right spot to put it in.”

Derrick Huang and Boston buckled down in the third period to hold off a frantic Culver Academies push. Huang finished with 18 saves in the third period, and 32 overall for the game. He was particularly strong with Boston on the penalty kill midway through the third when he made two point saves down low, robbing John Collins-Williams from in front with a little more than 10 minutes to go in the game.

Keaveney then gave Boston some crucial breathing room with his second goal of the game with 3:35 to go in the game. Keaveney, who finished two goals and two assists, had given Boston an early 1-0 lead 43 seconds to begin the game. 

Keaveney’s second goal wound up being extra important seeing as Brady Kudrna would strike with 21.6 seconds remaining for Culver with their goalie pulled when he buried home a rebound to make it a one-goal game. 

“There's just belief,” Joyce said. “These guys have been playing against each other since they've been kids. Were all from the local area. They all know each other, but they all go after each other all winter because they're all on different teams. So the big thing is when they come back together, they're a good bunch. We try to pick the best kids too, not just the best players, so we've got games like this where guys believe in each other.”

The belief is certainly there heading into Sunday’s marquee matchup against Shattuck as the Eagles will be attempting to win the program’s first national title. 

“We're going to have our hands full tomorrow, which the game will be a quick turnaround, but we will be ready to go tomorrow,” Joyce said. Whatever the outcome is. 

Billy MacAusland concluded, “It's always been the dream to play together and win something big and we have had a chance to do that tomorrow, so it's exciting.” 

The championship game will take place 10 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Youth Tier I 18U homepage, click here. 

--By: Justin Felisko

The Chicago Mission (IL) and the Boston Jr. Eagles (MA) will square off Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls Tier I 14U National Championship at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

The battle for the national championship will be a rematch from group play, a 4-1 victory by the Mission on Wednesday. That result helped the Mission go undefeated thus far at 5-0, while it is the only blemish the Eagles (4-1) have suffered.

Both teams won in overtime to reach the final. Chicago edged the Bay State Breakers (MA) 5-4, while Boston slipped past the Minnesota Lakers (MN) 2-1. 

Chicago has ridden a stingy defense to reach the title game. The Mission have allowed just three goals in four games before surrendering four in the semifinals. Katherine Jessup leads a balanced attack with three goals and three assists, while Shae Watson also has three goals. Jessup had two goals in the semifinals, including the OT winner. Quinn Kelly and Samantha Hoskins have split time in goal, with Kelly registering a 1.87 goals-against average and .914 save percentage in three games and Hoskins a 0.48 GAA and .971 save percentage in two games.

Boston also has a very good defense, allowing just eight goals, and has scored the third-most goals (19) at nationals. Teagan Beigel has six goals, which is tied for second in the tournament, while three teammates have a pair of goals. In goal, Keagan Gray has a 0.94 GAA and .946 save percentage in three games, while Stella Madarese has a 2.50 GAA and .884 save percentage.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 9 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Girls Tier I 14U homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

The Minnesota Silver (MN) will meet Shattuck-St. Mary’s (MN) on Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls Tier I 16U National Championships at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

In Saturday’s semifinals, Shattuck-St. Mary’s moved on with a dramatic 4-3 shootout victory over the Chicago Mission (IL) as Kathryn Hall was the lone player to score in the three-round shootout between undefeated teams. The Silver won in less dramatic fashion, as they pulled away from the Connecticut Polar Bears (CT) with a three-goal third period for a 5-1 win to remain perfect at nationals.

Minnesota has been on a roll throughout the tournament, outscoring its opponents 28-5. With that, the Silver have the top two scorers at nationals. Talla Hansen has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) and Madelyn Kimbrel has added 10 (five goals, five assists). Their five goals are tied for the best in the tournament, while Hansen’s seven helpers lead the way. Kayla Swartout and Anne Jane McGawn have shared time between the pipes, both playing in all five games. Swatout has made four starts and posted a 1.00 goals-against average and .931 save percentage, while McGawn has similar numbers with a 1.01 GAA and .942 save percentage.

Shattuck-St. Mary’s has a balanced attack and has a 20-7 scoring advantage. Jane Daley leads the way with a team-best four assists and seven points, while Kendall Doiron leads Shattuck-St. Mary’s with four goals. Daley’s seven points are fourth at nationals. Mackenzie Sunderbuch, who stopped all three shots in the shootout in the semifinals, has a 1.38 GAA and a .941 save percentage.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 10 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Girls Tier I 16U homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright

The Worcester White Hawks/NAHA (MA) will battle the Rochester Youth Bishop Kearney Selects (NY) on Sunday for the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Girls Tier I 19U National Championship at the New England Sports Center in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Both teams are 5-0 following Saturday’s semifinal victories. The White Hawks punched their ticket to Sunday’s final with a 2-0 victory over the Minnesota Traditions White (MN), while Rochester advanced by beating Assabet Valley (MA) 4-1.

Both teams have gotten to the title game with dominant performances. The White Hawks have outscored their opponents 26-5, while Rochester has a 36-4 advantage.

Worcester’s Ella Johnson and Mikah Keller are the top two scorers at nationals, with Johnson scoring twice in the semifinals to give her a tournament-best nine goals and boosting her nationals-leading point total to 14. Keller assisted on both goals to tie for the tournament lead with eight helpers and giving her 11 points. Evelyn Brown has started four games in goal, registering a 1.00 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.

Rochester is led by Nela Lopusanova. She had a hat trick Saturday to give her eight goals and match Keller’s 11 points. Lopusanova isn’t a one-girl show, however. Rhianna Mayer and Stryker Zablocki each have 10 points, with Mayer equaling Lopusanova’s eight goals, while Miami Jones has a team-high eight assists. Lia Nevo and Emeline Grennan have been the backbone of Rochester’s strong defense. In three starts, Nevo has a nationals-best 0.67 GAA and .964 save percentage among goalies with multiple games played. Grennan has started twice and has a 1.00 GAA and .961 save percentage. Each has recorded one shutout.

The championship game will take place Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET. Watch live on USAHockeyTV.com.

To view the Girls Tier I 19U homepage, click here.

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

By Steve Drumwright