GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A little wakeup call was all the Chesterfield Falcons needed.
The Missouri team gave up a quick goal to the Charlotte Jr. Checkers in the AA title game of the USA Hockey Tier II 16-and-Under National Championships, but rebounded in a big way with five straight goals.
The Falcons then held off a scrappy Checkers squad the rest of the way to earn a 7-3 victory in Sunday’s championship at the Cornerstone Community Center.
“I think we were a little nervous coming in,” said Chesterfield wing Nick Haydon, who scored two goals in the title game. “They scored that goal and you can’t get down. We went out there with a good, strong shift and put a couple in the net and rolled from there.”
According to Chesterfield coach Nick Lamia, his players step up their game when the pressure’s on.
“That’s just kind of been the character of our team,” Lamia said. “We like challenges, and they went up 1-0 and I think the boys just kind of mentally regrouped and we just started playing harder and better.”
After playing six games in five days, the Checkers players simply ran out of gas in the championship game.
“We’ve got a real short lineup and our big guns, they just tired out,” Charlotte coach Bob Halkidis said. “We had that foot on the gas pedal pretty much the whole tournament.”
Coming into Sunday, the Falcons won all five of their tournament games by one goal apiece. But Sunday, the Falcons went on a scoring binge and team’s offense was clicking on all cylinders for the first time in the tournament, Lamia said. The Falcons out-shot the Checkers 43-13 and registered three power-play goals and one shorthanded goal.
Charlotte lit the lamp first at the 7:50 mark of the first period as Scott Jacoppo poked in a rebound. After that, it was all Falcons. Chesterfield scored five unanswered goals in a span of 18 minutes, 40 seconds. Haydon scored twice and Ken Behlmann, Ethan Gremminger and Michael Parisot all got one goal each.
The Falcons were up 4-1 with 3:28 remaining in the second period when the Checkers drew a Falcons penalty. Halkidis decided to pull his goalie for an extra skater and attack the Falcons with a 6-on-4 advantage.
“We’ve been doing that all year and we’ve had pretty good success doing that,” Halkidis said. “We really had nothing to lose down 4-1. If you don’t score a goal and get back in the game, it’s going to be tough. We were on our heels most of the game, so I was just looking to get a goal.”
According to Halkidis, he yanked his goalie about 20 times in regulation time during the season and tallied 11 goals. The odds were in the Checkers’ favor to notch a goal Sunday in that situation. The move backfired, however, as the Falcons scored in the empty net and took a commanding four-goal lead.
Both teams notched two third-period goals, but the outcome wasn’t in question after the second intermission.
Lamia said the difference in the game was his team’s desire all season to be the best. His players knew exactly what they needed to do each practice to get better to reach their ultimate goal.
“I think we wanted it more and we came out there and we were focused,” Haydon said. “Our preparation, we’ve got a routine, and we stick to everything.”
On the Checkers’ side, Halkidis was proud his team advanced as far as it did. The players are “overachievers” in Halkidis’ mind.
“To come this far and end up second in the country, it’s an amazing accomplishment for a small-market team like us,” Halkidis said.
Haydon approached the championship game with the opposite outlook.
“We came into the game knowing it’s not worth it if you come in here and lose — no one’s going to remember you,” Haydon said. “We had to have that mentality of: ‘We’re going to win,’ and we had to have that mindset that we are winners and we’re going to be the champions.”
Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.