Feature Story

Minnesota Elite girls win Bauer NIT

 

The Upper Midwest High School Elite League All-Star Team outscored the competition 27-2 en route to winning the first Bauer National Invitational Tournament hosted this past weekend at Shattuck-St. Mary’s School. Team UMHSEL beat the Minnesota Thoroughbreds AAA 5-1, Minnesota Crunch 13-1, Edge School (Alberta) 6-0, and Shattuck U19 Prep team 3-0. The UMHSEL team’s success supports Minnesota Hockey’s position that community-based programs are the way to go in developing top talent.

Opening night featured Team UMHSEL facing off against the MN Thoroughbreds. Team UMHSEL carried the play for the majority of the game, gaining a 41-27 advantage in shots and building the lead to 5-0, before the T-breds’ lone goal with 1:30 remaining. Sally Komarek completed her hat trick 20 seconds into the third period. Bethany Brausen and Kelsey Romatoski also scored for Team UMHSEL. Kallie Billadeau made 26 saves.

Game two  matched up Team UMHSEL against the Minnesota Crunch, a post-grad AAA team. Twelve different players scored in a 13-1 victory. Included in the scoring were defenseman Christina Lacombe (2), Rose Alleva, Lisa Martinson and Romatoski. Goalie Laura Bellamy turned away 16 of 17 shots.

Game three paired Team UMHSEL with the Edge School. Hannah Brandt’s two goals and one assist led Team UMHSEL to a 6-0 win. Bellamy gained the shutout by stopping all 11 shots.

Championship Sunday brought together Team UMHSEL and Shattuck-St. Mary’s U19 Prep team. Shattuck had beaten Brampton 2-1, Notre Dame 8-3 and Ontario Hockey Academy 7-2 en route to the finals. Billadeau shut the door for the shutout as Team UMHSEL outshot SSM 36-24 and won the final by a score of 3-0. Brausen and Becky Kortum both scored in the first period, and Komarek put the game out of reach early in the second period with the third goal.

Team UMHSEL’s success shows the benefit of Minnesota Hockey’s strong foundation of community-based programs: solid numbers lead to a solid talent pool. The alternative (in U.S. and Canada) are AAA programs that have no feeder system and pull from other programs. The outcome is a rapid loss of numbers in AAA because the game becomes too heavy (cost + travel), too early.

Unlike AAA programs, all players on Team UMHSEL have grown up playing in their local youth hockey associations and have returned back to their local high school teams for the regular Minnesota State High School League season.

This is the first time that the Bauer National Invitational Tournament has been held for girls in Minnesota. This year, Shattuck-St. Mary’s School co-hosted the tournament with the UMHSEL. Starting next fall, the tournament will be hosted by UMHSEL in the Twin Cities and will again feature the top girls’ U19 teams around North America. For future Bauer NIT and UMHSEL updates, visit www.girlselitehockey.com .

 

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