Dallas Cup - 2005

The Annual Dallas Cup, hosted by the Dallas Stars Major Midget AAA club, will be held in Dallas January 28th-30th.  This year, a U16 Minor Midget AAA Division has been added to the tournament format, with the Alliance Bulldogs playing their part.   Each year, some of the top Tier I AAA programs send their best to Dallas for this tough tournament.

Indicated below are both the U16 Minor and U18 Major Divisions.  Check back here during the tournament for results.  For a brief Preview of the U16 Teams, click here...   (updated with ALL teams now)

For Alliance game articles, click here...  For Alliance game pictures, click here...

Dallas Cup 2005 – Minor Midget AAA Team Previews

Omaha Energy:  The Energy is a team made up of players from 7 different states, with almost half their roster filled with 89 birth year players.  They come into this tournament with a record of 22-18-0, playing an independent schedule, and having already played against 2 of the other 3 teams in their division. 

The Energy was shut out by the Phoenix Firebirds 5-0 back on September 18th, and lost to the Colorado Thunderbirds 6-0 on October 15th.  They have played against another common Alliance opponent, losing to the LA Jr. Kings by the score of 3-1 on September 19th.

Phoenix Firebirds:  The Firebirds followed the same path as Alliance this year, adding Tier I AAA to their program, with some of their players coming from the Bantam and Midget Minor Tier II teams of 2003-2004, both Arizona State Champions.  Their 2003-2004 Bantam U14 Tier II team lost to the Alliance Bantams in the Semi-Finals of Regionals, and the U16 team won Regionals and advanced to the National Championships. 

This year’s team plays in the Tier I U18 Division of the Southwest Youth Hockey League, and is currently in 5^th Place with a 3-9-4 league mark.  It’s tough playing in a league where you have to compete with your own Midget Major team, the same way Alliance Tier II U16 did last year. 

Colorado Thunderbirds:  The Thunderbirds are becoming a familiar opponent, as the Bulldogs have faced them twice this season already, both times in the King of the Rockies Tournament.  The Bulldogs came out on top both times, 4-0 in the preliminary round, and then 5-3 in the Championship game. 

The Thunderbirds play out of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and come into the tournament with a 27-18-3 record, having played in some of the toughest tournaments in the country.  They have also complimented their schedule with numerous games against Major Midget programs.  Fourteen (14) of their rostered players are birth year 89s, some of which played on their Bantam U14 Tier I team that went 3-2 and finished 3rd in the Tier I National Championships in 2004, losing to the California Wave in the Semi-Finals.

Victory Honda: Victory Honda comes into the Dallas Cup with a 7-14-1 league record in arguably one of the toughest Tier I AAA Leagues, the Midwest Elite Hockey League (MWEHL), which features some of the best Tier I programs in the country.  Their roster is composed of 13 players born in 89, and 7 born in 88.  Their league has 2 other common Alliance opponents, the Chicago Young Americans (CYA), and Honeybaked.  Victory Honda has dropped all 4 games to CYA thus far, and Alliance beat CYA 6-3 in the Motor City Cup Semi-Finals.  Alliance then defeated Victory Honda by the score of 2-1 to win the Motor City Cup Championship.  Honda has dropped 2 to Honeybaked, and Alliance lost to Honeybaked 6-0 in the Pan Am AAA Challenge back in September.

Tri-City Eagles:   The Tri-City Eagles  team is referred to by their association as their Midget Gold team.  The team is registered with the Southeastern District of USA Hockey and competes in the U-16 AA division of the Capital Beltway Hockey League against teams from the Washington D.C. area.  They also participate in tournaments throughout the United States.  Their organization started in 1993 and has sent 5 teams to the USA Hockey Nationals.

This year's team consists primarily of 9th, 10th and 11th grade boys living in Maryland and Virginia selected during tryouts conducted in May 2004.   They come into the Dallas Cup with a 18-5-1 record.  Common opponents of the Eagles and Bulldogs are the Central Penn Panthers, with the Panthers beating the Eagles by scores of 7-1 and 6-4.  Alliance tied Central Penn 2-2, and then beat them 6-0, both games in the Pittsburgh Tier I Invitational during Thanksgiving.  The Eagles also dropped one to the EMass Senators 13-0, and Alliance lost 2 games to the Senators by scores of 7-6 and 4-2 back on Labor Day Weekend in Boston.

Russell Stover Stars: The Kansas City Stars Midget hockey program recently announced the addition of a major sponsor, Russell Stover Inc.  The Stars, at the Midget level, will be known as the Russell Stover Stars.  The Russell Stover Stars also announced that they will be registering as Tier I AAA teams at the U18 and U16 levels starting in the 2004-05 season.  The Stars teams have had great success at the Tier II level the past two years.  They plan to expand on that success by bringing some of the best local area players to live in Kansas City and compete nationally at the AAA level. 

The Stars come into this weekend with a 9-23-1 record, having faced several of the same teams as Alliance.  Among those common opponents are the Dallas Ice Jets (3-2 loss), LA Jr. Kings (3-0 & 5-0 losses), and the Colorado Thunderbirds (6-0 loss).  They have also faced 2 of the other teams in this tournament, the Omaha Energy (1 win, 2 losses), and the Phoenix Firebirds (8-1 loss).

SJ Sharks: The Sharks are a somewhat familiar opponent as well, as Alliance has faced these guys in the past couple of years, in Littleton each Thanksgiving, and then again last year at the U14 Tier II National Championships when some of the current Shark players were Bantams.  This current Shark team faced the Bulldogs in the 1st Round of the Pan Am AAA Challenge back in September, with Alliance coming out on top by a score of 5-1.  

San Jose comes into the tournament with a 18-13-4 season record, playing against numerous Major teams, and have played several of the same teams that Alliance has faced this year as well.  Among those are the California Wave, LA Hockey Club, Yorba Linda, Central Penn, Pittsburgh Hornets, and the LA Jr. Kings.  Alliance defeated all of these teams except for the Wave (2 losses), and you can go to the San Jose 16AAA web site for their results and scores of games against these teams.

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