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15U (2006) Bishop Kearney Selects Boys hockey team pose for a championship photo after winning Exposure Hockey's Exposure Cup tournament.

Upsets galore on Halloween weekend in Massachusetts

Exposure Hockey hosted a pair of youth hockey events over the holiday weekend, with the Ameri-Can Cup and the Exposure Cup. Both events brought together top U.S. teams, and in doing so, presented some opportunities for big upsets.

We’ve highlighted some notable games from a weekend chocked full of surprises, broken down by birth-year. All of the rankings included are from the most-recent World Hockey Hub U.S. rankings for their respective age groups.

2006

No. 2-ranked American team, Bishop Kearney ended up winning their age group, but they had to climb out of a hole early on. The No. 8 St. Louis AAA Blues posted a huge 2-1 victory Friday morning to kick things off with a bang – Jack Kohlmann and Will Peterson provided the pair of goals in the upset.

In another top-10 showdown, No. 7 Windy City Storm took down No. 3 Little Caesars in the semifinals. It was a rough weekend for the Detroit-based squad, as Caesars tied the New York Saints to open tournament play and also dropped a game to the Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers.

Windy City had ran into a brick wall earlier in the tournament; on Friday, they were shut out by the Buffalo Jr. Sabres in a 5-0 contest. Aiden McKenna was listed as the goaltender of record for the Sabres. The Storm were able to regroup and make a run to the championship game before falling a second time at the hands of Bishop Kearney.

Another Detroit-based team, No. 10 Victory Honda had a tough outing as well with a 2-3-0 record. However, three of their players still led the tournament in scoring – John Delverne (nine points), Tyler Fortson (seven points) and Michael Barron (seven points).

2007

Victory Honda tied No. 5 Mount St. Charles 2-2 in the quarterfinals – a third-period goal from Egan Beveridge evened things up for the Mounties.

A consolation contest between Mount and the Bishop Kearney Selects surely caught some attention on Sunday, with Mount prevailing over the No. 9-ranked Selects 7-3. Rough stretch for Bishop Kearney, as the Selects finished 1-4-0 on the tournament.

CarShield Hockey Club gave No. 6 Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers its only loss on the weekend, with goals from Devon Hobson and Alex DeGroat leading to a 2-1 victory in the quarterfinals.

2008

The 2008 birth-year title game was a big one, as No. 7 Top Gun Elite took down No. 5 Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers 5-4 in the finale. Spencer Thornborough turned in a hat trick in the championship affair for Top Gun.

The North Jersey Avalanche bounced the top-ranked Windy City Storm in the quarterfinals 4-3, thanks in large part to a hat trick from Emilio Bedoya. Windy City took out their frustration on the Long Island Gulls in a consolation contest the next day, racking up a 7-1 win with four goals from Nathan Hauad.

The big weekend for Top Gun also included them playing No. 3 Chicago Mission to a 3-3 tie on Friday.

2009

The No. 6 Boston Jr. Eagles took out the No. 3 Chicago Reapers on Oct. 29 to start off the tournament with an ‘upset’ of sorts. It was the only game the Reapers would lose, while the Jr. Eagles lost 3-1 in an elimination round later in the tournament.

One of the Reapers’ wins came over the No. 5 Boston Jr. Terriers later in the tournament.

The Philadelphia Jr. Flyers beat No. 4 Mid-Fairfield in the tournament opener for those two clubs. After the Rangers won Saturday morning, the Dallas Stars Elite beat Mid-Fairfield 6-5 in a rematch eight hours later.

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