UTICA, N.Y. — The old adage goaltending wins championships held true for the Raleigh Raptors (NC) this weekend as William McKinley recorded two consecutive shutouts en route to the 2A title at the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier II 18U Nationals Championships.

Raleigh defeated the Texas Tigers (TX) 3-0 in the semifinals and then defeated the Green Bay Bobcats (WI) 4-0 in the title game.

McKinley stopped all 21 shots in the final to leave no doubt for the Raptors. Overall, starting five of Raleigh’s six games, McKinley posted a 1.32 goals against average and .954 save percentage.

“He was locked in,” Ed Levens, Raleigh’s head coach, said. “He really gave us a good chance to win. I don’t think he’s ever played better in his life, and it came at the right time.”

Green Bay coach Nick Glander was proud of the run his team made to the championship game.  

“I thought the whole weekend we played well,” Glander said. “It just wasn’t our day. We had a lot of comeback wins. An overtime win. We were just mentally and physically drained.”

Meanwhile, Raleigh kept getting stronger and stronger as the week went on. After losing the opener 3-2 in overtime, the Raptors pulled out 2-1, 6-2 and 9-3 wins before the back-to-back shutouts.

On the offensive side for Raleigh, it was the Zach Kodesh show, as he tallied two goals and two assists in the championship game.

“That’s what he does,” Levens said. “That’s what he does all season. He gets to the dirty areas, the hard places to score and he buries it.”

“A quick rush and I tipped it by,” Kodesh said of his first period goal to open the scoring. “We knew they pinch heavily with the defense. So, just took it by, two-on-one. The goalie was moving, so I knew I had room on the glove side to chip it in with the backhand.”

Owen Kenny made it 2-0 before the first period ended on a shot from the left circle.

Kodesh made it 3-0 early in the second while a man up off a rebound of a Kevin Ma shot.

“We’ve been working on our power play all season,” Kodesh said. “We felt pretty comfortable with that 3-0 lead.”

Ma finished off the scoring on another power play with 2:25 left in regulation. His shot came from the corner, beyond a nearly impossible angle, and he banked it in off the goaltender.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Kodesh said. “This is my fourth natty. Made it to the championship game before but couldn’t get it done. I’m just happy in our last game we were able to pull it off.”

Kodesh also praised his goalie.

“How about Will McKinley? He stepped up when we needed him the most,” Kodesh said. “I knew he had it in him. I’m super proud of him.”

Finishing the tournament on such a high note stood out to Levens.

“It’s been a long journey for us,” he said. “To bring home a championship to Raleigh is really special. We just played so hard. All weekend the kids bought in to playing a certain way — unselfish. We run four lines. I’m really proud of our boys.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.