SASA girls win U12 AB state title

The St. Albans Skating Association U10 Saints, who were forced to compete in the U-12 AB tournament because of a lack of teams at their own age level, won the state tournament Sunday morning in St. Albans at the Collins-Perley rink with a 5-2 come-from-behind win over their neighbors to the north, the Missisquoi Amateur Hockey Association.

SASA poses with their trophy

MAHA struck first with a goal by Adrianna Dotsie, assisted by Savannah Fellows, just 20 seconds into the game.

Julia Knight, who finished with two goals and an assist, tied the score 2:37 later, assisted by Meghan Connor and Elizabeth Dukas.

Dotsie connected again for the Thunderbirds at the 6:22 mark, assisted by Fellows and Renee Bouchard, for a 2-1 lead.

Knight tied the game at 8:13 of the first period, with assists from Lizzie Hill and Emma Lovelette.

Lovelette put the Saints on top for keeps with an unassisted goal 4:57 in the second period.

MAHA poses with their trophy

Grace Adamczak then tallied for SASA at the 6:53 mark, assisted by Knight.

Connor wrapped up the scoring with 3:09 left in the second period, assisted by Sydney Tabor.

Maddie Hungerford was the SASA goalie and Makayla Bombardier worked between the pipes for the T-Birds.

SASA Saints team members were: Sydney Tabor, Mckenna Remillard, Meghan Connor, Chloe Rouleau, Julia Knight, Maddie Hungerford, Maddie Curtis, Abby Casey, Lizzie Hill, Cam Hemingway, Grace Adamczak, Emma Lovelette, Hailey Savage and Elizabeth Dukas. The team was coached by Jeff Rouleau, Jen Savage, Brad Curtis and Maura Hemingway.

MAHA T-Birds team members were: Renee Bouchard, Makayla Bombardier, Adrianna Dotsie, Savannah Fellows, Abbey Besstte, Makayla Young, Madison Conley, Brianna Conger, Brianna Parent, Lora Fresn, Jenna Bourdeau. The team was coached by Paul Fellows, Mike Conger and Mandy Bouchard.

Can I buy your love (or at least your like)?

From now through the end of this month - which has an extra day this year - I'm running a shameless and brazen marketing campaign aimed at getting likes on the Cold Hollow Photography Facebook page.

As the title to this blog infers, I'm trying to bribe you to like the site with a free sports image from my website.

Here's the deal: Click the like button on our Facebok page and I'll give you any sports image off our website.

It's that simple. To get your free image - which will be emailed to you - email me: shawn@coldhollowphoto.com and say you liked our page and I'll get you your favorite sports image from my website.

U-12 AB girls tournament update: SASA 3, MAHA 0

The St. Albans Skating Association U-12 AB Saints defeated the Missisquoi Amateur Hockey Association Thunderbirds 3-0 on Saturday to force a rematch tomorrow at 8 a.m. for the state title at the Collins-Perley rink.

MAHA's Brianna Conger and SASA's Chloe Rouleau pass each other along the boards in Saturday's game.

St. Albans took a 1-0 lead on Elizabeth Dukas' goal at 10:39 of the first period.

The Saints made it 2-0 on Sydney Tabor's goal, assisted by Grace Adamczak and Chloe Rouleau, with 8:34 gone in the third period and Meghan Connor scored an unassisted goal with 4:04 to round out the scoring.

The U-14 MAHA girls, the SASA Squirt As and SASA Midgets are alsoin action Saturday. If I get a report from any of those games, I'll pass it along here at some point. The quickest updates will be made through out twitter account @coldhollowphoto and on my personal Facebook page (Shawn Corrow)

Youth hockey tournament update

Youth hockey state tournaments are nearing conclusions, or in some cases have already concluded, at venues all over Vermont.

I’ve been fortunate enough to be at several, but certainly not all games and with the help of local coaches and from information gleaned from the state tournament website I think I’ve put together a pretty comprehensive look at the tournament outlook and results for the St. Albans Skating Association and the Missisquoi Amateur Hockey Association team - both of which I’m VERY proud to work with for their team and individual photos.

As with any venture like this, I run the risk of unintended consequences. If I misspell a name, get a score wrong or make other mistakes - as I am prone to do - please correct me and I’ll fix the information on this blog post. Also, I just thought of doing this late in the tournament season, so I don’t have a lot of names or results from games earlier in the month.

Next year, assuming SASA and MAHA invite back, I’ll try to get ahead of the curve and we can make this space Tournament Central and get all the results of all the games included.

Without further ado or disclaimer, here’s what I know - or at least I think I know - about our local youth hockey teams’ progress and results in the state tournament.

SASA U-10 girls celebrate a goal.

Saturday, the SASA Squirt A Leafs play with a chance to win the state championship with a win at Carins. The game begins at 10:40 a.m., weather permitting. If the Leafs lose, the winner-take-all game is Sunday at 8:30 a.m.

On Tuesday, the Squirts team remained unbeaten with a 5-2 win over Essex in the six-team tournament.

Mason Yandow had four goals and Connor Wood had one. Tyler Laroche earned the win in net for the Leafs, who are off until Saturday when they play the winner of a game between Essex and Burlington at 10:40 a.m.

At 10:10 Saturday morning, the MAHA U-12 Thunderbirds girls team plays the SASA U-10 girls at the Collins-Perley rink for a chance to win the U-12 AB state championship.

If the SASA Saints win, the winner-take-all championship game is Sunday at 8 a.m.

The Thunderbirds advanced to the final round with a win over CSB on Feb. 19.

CSB beat SASA in the first game of the three-team tournament, but the Saints prevailed 3-0 in the rematch on Thursday night.

Elizabeth Dukas, Julia Knight and Cameryne Hemingway scored for the Saints and Maddie Hungerford worked the shutout in goal.

In the five-team U-14 AB girls tournament, the MAHA Thunderbirds will play in the semifinals against Northshire at 10:45 a.m. Saturday in Middlebury. SASA also competed in the tournament.

The four-team midget state tournament begins Saturday in St. Albans. The Leafs play Wolf Pack at 4:10 p.m.

In tournaments that have been completed:

In the state Squirt B tournament, the Milton Youth Hockey Association Warriors won the state title on Feb. 19 after advancing out of the North Division playdown with 2-0 record, outscoring opponents 7-1. St. Albans went 0-1-1 and did not advance.

On Thursday, the SASA Peewee A team lost to CSB 3-0 in the state title game.

St. Albans earned a trip to the finals Tuesday night with a a 7-2 win over Essex at the Collins-Perley rink.

Cooper Cioffi had three goals and an assist, Logan Stanislas and Isaac Cioffi each had a goal and two assists, Keegan Morin had a goal and an assist and Cam Beattie also scored. Keegan Streeter had two assists and Owen Hungerford, Jacob Hall and Brent Boissoneault each had one assist. Goalie stats were not kept, but Stephen Peebles was stellar in goal.

SASA led 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 before scoring the final four goals in the third period.

SASA Peewees

Thursday night, the SASA U-14 A girls bowed out of their tournament in the championship game, losing to Rutland, 4-2.

Both SASA goals were both scored by Elena Brigham. The first goal was assisted by Maddy Dean and Aliza Ellis and the second goal was assisted by Dean. Gabi Metz was the SASA netminder.

On Tuesday night, SASA bowed out of the Bantam A tournament at Essex after a 3-2 loss to the hosts in the semifinal round.

Hunter Kirouac had a goal and an assist for the Leafs, who led 1-0 after one period and who later rallied to tie the game at 2-2 on Cameron Russell’s goal 6:44 into the third period. Sam Shorey assisted on the first score. Goalie stats were not kept, but Ben Lovelette was brilliant in net.

SASA finished runners up in the Bantam AB tournament with a 3-2 record.

In the state Squirt AB tournament that concluded with a Stowe win on Feb. 18, the Missisquoi Amateur Hockey Association Thunderbirds picked up a triple-overtime win in their game, but dropped their next two games.

In the 11-team Peewee AB tournament, MAHA won three games and lost two and Milton won two games and lost two.

In the 10-team Peewee B tournament, SASA won its first game, but dropped its next two.

In the nine-team Bantam B tournament, SASA lost its two games. MAHA lost its first game, but the on-line tournament bracket does not have a result for their second game. They did not advance to the medal round.

The SASA U-12 A girls dropped both of its tournament games.

Again, if I have made some factual errors, please let me know and I'll correct them.

Dance State Championship news and notes

A few things to know about today's Vermont dance state championship at Vergennes High School.

This is the seventh year dance has been an organized athletic endeavor in Vermont.

The first year, the sport was a demonstration sport. In 2007, the first state championship was awarded to Springfield.

South Burlington goes through it's practice routine / Shawn Corrow, coldhollowphoto.com

Other past champs are South Burlington (2008), Burr and Burton (2009 and 2011) and Colchester (2010).

There are three genres of dance championships awarded: Pom, Jazz and Hip Hop.

Teams can compete in two genres. The team with the highest combined score for both dances wins the state title.

There are five judges for each dance. The top and bottom scores are thrown out. The maximum score for each judge is 100. The combined scored of the remaining three judges is combined for a total score of a maximum of 300. According to event chair Sean Farrell, South Burlington has posted the high score in the regular season, scoring nearly 280 points.

Eleven schools are competing - Arlington, BFA-St. Albans, Burr and Burton, Colchester, Lamoille, Middlebury, MVU, Mount Anthony, Mount Mansfield, South Burlington and Springfield.

The largest team is MMU with 21 dancers listed on its roster; MVU has just 5.

South Burlington goes through it's practice routine / Shawn Corrow, coldhollowphoto.com

Here's the scoring matrix:

Teams could score as many as 100 points based on five categories: Communication and projection (10 possible points); choreography (40 possible points, 10 each for appropriateness to genre, difficulty and creativity; five points each for formations/transitions and the way the dance compliments the music; group execution (25 possible points, 10 each for synchronization, timing with the music and five points for spacing; dance technique (20 possible points, 10 each for rhythm and body control/placement; five points for image of a high school dance team in regards to appropriateness of music, lyrics, movement and apparel.