CHESTERFIELD, Mo. -- It has become a regular event at the Central District tournament, even if this year it took a different route.

The St. Louis AAA Blues won the Tier I Kohlman Cup 18U title Sunday, earning their third title in the past five years. They head to their fourth Toyota-USA Hockey National Championships during that time frame.

Coach Scott Sanderson enjoyed both the gritty way his team won and that it won not knowing exactly what it was facing heading into the tournament. 

“It played out for the most part the way I had hoped that it would with us being able to move on,” he said. “But this is the first time in regionals where we had not played any of the teams.”

St. Louis got past Chicago Mission 3-2 in a shootout to open the Cup before earning a 3-2 victory against Omaha AAA and a 4-3 win over the Wisconsin Capitols. The Blues finished with eight points, followed by Mission with six.

Typically the top teams in each district will have seen each other at some point during the run-up to the district championships. Sometimes it’s during tournaments or just traveling to face the other squads.

Not this year.

The Blues went in with little knowledge of their opponents. They got through the tournament with little room for error.

As the scores attest, nothing came particularly easy for St. Louis.

“It was tough,” defenseman Blake Freund said. “We just had to hang in there and keep on battling.”

The Blues open the national championships on March 26 in Amherst, N.Y. against Cape Cod, Mass. St. Louis is one of two Central District teams to advance. Mission was picked as one of the four at-large teams to compete in the tournament.

Sanderson said his defense played some of its best hockey of the season in the Central tournament. He was especially impressed by the defensive duo of Fruend (pronounced like “friend”) and Ben Rucker, using them as much as he could during each of the three games.

The defense, along with a solid performance by goalie Tommy Napier, was just enough to get the Blues the Cup title.

Freund had at least a couple of bruises from pucks his body absorbed to prove how hard he and his teammates worked. He said the team took the attitude that nothing was more important than finding a way to win.

“We’re never satisfied,” he said. “We’re always trying to block more shots.”

As pleased as Sanderson was with his defense, he said Josh Dunne played an oversized role in the wins. Dunne had two goals but meant much more to the Blues.

The 6-foot-4, 180-pound forward is on the top line for the Blues. Yet he might also find himself skating with the fourth line and essentially wherever Sanderson needs him.

“This kid has the potential of playing in the NHL some day,” Sanderson said. “He’s that good. He’s just big and raw, right now. I used him a ton from center to wing, to killing penalties, power play. He did the gamut.”

Just a high school sophomore, Dunne still has time to work on his skills. What is hard to question is his work ethic. He was toward the top of the charts for minutes played. He also helped make sure that his defenders didn’t feel abandoned while trying to secure all of the close victories.

“We didn’t have a ton of scoring this weekend, so we really had to shut it down back on defense,” he said. “Forwards and defenseman really had to play well back there.”

Whatever it took, Sanderson was just happy his team found a way to win.

“All one-goal games are fine if you’re on the right side of it,” he said, “but not the way you planned it out.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.