Rocky Mountain Roughriders WIN Chicago Nike Bauer Invitational Tournament!!

Rocky Mountain Roughriders U16 AAA Champions

Orland Park, IL - The Rocky Mountain Roughriders entered the Championship game with a perfect 6-0 record. The Tampa Bay Alliance also qualified by going 6-0 in the tournament.

The opening faceoff brought a brisk tempo to the game and entertained fans, family and scouts with back and forth play. Each team shared possession time throughout the first period, until finally at the 12:44 mark of the first period, Michael Buonincontri got the Roughriders on the board first. The teams skated fairly evenly for the next 1/2 period with the Roughriders outworking the Alliance. The Roughrider attack was relentless, however, and by the middle of the second period the Alliance were running on fumes.

Hunter Clark Celebrates an important goal

At 6:11 of the second period, Hunter Clark buried a pass from Bobby Valdez to give the Roughriders a 2-0 tilt in the match. Buonincontri got back into the action when he rifled a shot passed the Alliance goal tender after getting a dirty pass from Adam Durkee. Lucas Blomquist nearly bent his stick in half on a slapshot from the point that went top shelf up where grandma hides the peanut butter!

The Roughrider scoring machine caught fire again midway through the third when Braiden Miller threaded the puck through a narrow gap on a shot from just above the goaline. That line wasn't quite through yet as Miller and Valdez worked the puck over to Clark who tallied his second goal in as many periods to put the Roughriders up 6-0.

Joakim Jutras pitched another shutout stopping every shot he faced. He played well behind a solid defensive core. The Roughrider blueliners were solid from the opening faceoff to the final whistle!

The Roughriders finished the weekend 7-0, outscoring their opponents 41-4 and took away the Nike Bauer Invitational Tournament Cup. Joakim Jutras was awarded the tournament goalie MVP and Yannick Crete was awarded the MVP for forwards.




Official Gamesheet