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Affton Americans top Phoenix Firebirds for title

By Russell Jaslow, 04/04/07, 5:00PM MDT

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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Two fast, aggressive teams met early Sunday morning for USA Hockey's Tier II 12 & Under National Championship. And it was a team from St. Louis, Mo., the Affton Americans, that came out on top, defeating the Phoenix Firebirds, 2-1.

A goal during each of the first two periods by Affton and strong goaltending by Ryne Sandler was enough to hold off a comeback attempt by Phoenix in the third period. The Firebirds finally dented the scoreboard after a string of Affton penalties, but it was too little, too late.

"Two very good teams," Affton head coach Bill Mermis said. "We're very fortunate. We clogged the ice up on them.”

Said Phoenix head coach Kurt Goar: "We played them the second game [a 3-2 Affton victory] and they had three pretty good players who we talked about. Maybe we watched them too much. It would have been nice to score some more goals early instead of playing hard the last five minutes."

It didn't take long for Affton to get on the scoreboard. At 1:53 of the first period, the coach’s son, Dakota Mermis, scored off a scramble in the crease. Matt Brown got the assist.

The prettiest of the goals came at 10:46 of the second period, giving the Americans a 2-0 lead. Alex Turin skated into the zone down the left side on a quickly developed two-on-one. Turin fed a nice pass just over the defender's stick to Nick Chiodini, who didn't waste the effort as he one-timed it past Dylan Hojnacki.

Affton nearly made it 3-0 when Turin intercepted a point-to-point pass with Phoenix on the power play. Turin raced all the way down the ice, pulling away from his pursuers. He made two quick dekes, went to his backhand, and only a nice save from Hojnacki prevented the score.

With Affton outshooting Phoenix through two periods, 19-12, the tide turned in the third as Phoenix had the advantage, 12-4.  Phoenix made every attempt at getting back into the contest.

"Their goalie was pretty darn good," Goar said.  "We're a third-period team. We get ourselves down and then we get a little kick to get us going."

It was one solid save after another by Sandler that bailed his team out.

"He's a very confident, calm player who works his rear end off at all times in practice," Mermis said. "He's constantly focused, and it's not driven by his parents. It's got to come from inside, and that's the kind of kid he is. He wants to be a good goalie and it shows."

Phoenix finally broke through, thanks to a late penalty and pulling its goalie for a six-on-four advantage. It was a goal made of speed. After Affton shot the puck toward the empty net, Firebirds' defenseman Drew Newmeyer picked up the loose puck. He skated around his own net, headed all the way down the length of the ice on the left side, went in deep, and sent the puck across the slot area.

Austin Carroll was there to receive the puck and he fired it past Sandler.

Phoenix tried again to tie up the game, pulling its goalie for the final 30 seconds, but this time the team could not apply any pressure.

"Games ebb and flow," Mermis said.  "We took those penalties back-to-back-to-back [late in the third] and we found a way to kill them. I'm really proud of our boys. They found a way to get it done on a big stage."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.