A team from Alabama recently brought home a national championship.
Nothing new for the Yellowhammer State, right?
Well, this is new. It was in ice hockey.
The 16-under Alabama Thunder won the USA Hockey Youth Tier II National Championship. The squad of mainly Huntsville- and Birmingham-area players was the first Alabama team to win a USA Hockey championship at any age level.
“It’s incredible,” said Thunder forward Miles Daehn. “Especially coming from the South, everybody doubting us.”
The Thunder went 5-0-0 in the championship tournament in Amherst, N.Y., including a 5-3 win over Charleston, S.C., in the title game.
The head coach of the Huntsville-based team is Lance West, a former coach and player for the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The Chargers were an NCAA power in the mid-1990s, winning two NCAA Division II national championships and falling in two title games. The school also won three club hockey national championships from 1982-84.
“We’re trying to build a program where kids can stay close to home,” West said. “I’m excited for the guys to get their first championship.”
After taking a 3-0 lead in the first period of the championship game, the Thunder saw the Jr. Stingrays even the score in the second period.
But Daehn scored the eventual game-winner in the third period.
“I was down in the offensive zone just grinding it out,” he said. “I saw the puck and just shot it on the net and saw it go in.”
Ashton Lambert scored a hat trick for the Thunder and Owen McDougal also scored. Goalie Kristofer Hatch had 18 saves.
The clincher came with 49 seconds left when Charleston, trailing 4-3, was trying to pull its goalie. Lambert shot the puck into a nearly empty net as the goalie was scrambling to get back into the crease. That gave Lambert his hat trick and sixth goal of the tournament.
“It was what I expected,” West said of the championship game. “It was back and forth.
“Proud to be part of it.”
Red Line Editorial contributed to this report.
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