KALAMAZOO, Mich. — The 1A title game at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 14U National Championships needed a shootout to crown a champion.

The shootout was tied 1-1 when Lucas Dennis skated up to take the fourth attempt. Dennis buried his attempt to lift the Nebraska Warbirds (NE) over Team Wyoming (WY) for the national title.

“Not a lot of words to describe it, a lot of emotions,” Dennis said. “We’ve been working the whole season, and this is the goal and what we wanted back in October. It feels pretty special.”

Warren Peters, Nebraska’s head coach, expanded upon the long journey his team has been on to win a national title.  

“It’s everything,” Peters said. “Bunch of dudes that set out on a journey seven months ago. It’s even what it means to our area, our program. We brought together a group of kids that came from a lot of different places this year to build this team. For them to come together the way that they did, it’s a testament to not only those that are here but everyone that had an impact on it along the way.”

Team Wyoming came in flying with aggressive play and a strong forecheck. They continuously carried the puck into the offensive zone, firing 11 shots on goal in the first period. Wyoming made clean passes and skated smoothly while using a strong forecheck and backcheck up and down the ice.

While Dennis tied up the game in the second period, Wyoming had a strong response.

Adger Steinberg scored two goals in a five-minute span to give Wyoming a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

Both teams came out with aggression in the third period, attempting to get into each other’s offensive zone and fire shots on net. Both respective goalies, Mcintosh Mixter of Wyoming and Giovanni Desciscio of Nebraska, made outstanding saves in net.

With just 3:54 to go in the final period, the Warbirds were able to close the gap and get back within one goal as forward Kyler Wyle caught the puck on the breakaway and juked out Mixter to slide the puck in on his stick side

Just over a minute later on a delayed penalty, forward Carsten Vorland took the puck to Mixter’s glove side, flipping the puck up to the cross bar and sending it ringing around the pipes to tie it up.

“Compete and see where you end up, work hard every shift and look up at the end and see where you’re at,” Dennis said. “We did that every period, ended up tying it up, working through overtime and winning the shootout.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.