Explosive start for Xplosion Travel

With not much practice time before the start of the season, the first tournament of the summer can be rough. However, Xplosion did very well in Colorado this past weekend (4/11-4/13) at TORHS Regionals. Of the 6 teams, 3 brought home gold and 2 silver.

8u dominated the tournament going 5-0 with 3 shutouts. Of the 5 games played, they mercied (won by 8) 4 of them.

10u started the tournament slow with a large loss to Yuma AZ and a close loss to YVU (CO). The team reset and beat the Parker Pioneers to move onto the championship Sunday Morning. Late in the championship game, they found themselves down 1-3 before coach Rob called a timeout and rallied them back to a 4-3 victory bringing home the gold.

12u looked sluggish on Friday night losing by 6 to YVU (CO). But they team banded together and started to get better throughout the weekend. They picked up 2 wins on the weekend and managed to get the silver.

14u came out ready for the weekend with a big Shootout Win over the Good Guys. That was the Good Guys only round robin loss brought to them by Xplosion Hockey. The team battled through the rest of the weekend before finding themselves in the championship game against the YVU team they had lost to earlier in the weekend 1-3. Couldn't have asked for a better outcome as Xplosion took full advantage of YVU's mistakes taking the win 8-4 and the gold medal.

16u struggled this weekend. The team underestimated the speed of the Colorado teams. Once this team can get their passing and playmaking together, they will do better. They did improve as the weekend went along losing a close 4-5 game to the Good Guys late in the tournament. Practices these next couple of weeks will be key for this team to succeed this season.

18u came into the weekend prepared. Friday started with a 6-1 win over the Good Guys (CO). They kept it rolling on Saturday with a 5-4 shootout win over the OC Blades (CA) and a 3-0 win over the Glazers (CO). As the 1 seed, they got matched against the 4 seed Good Guys where Xplosion showed their dominance in the 6-0 game. Unfortunately the team came into the championship game against the OC Blades tired as they were down 0-4 at half. They tried to turn it around but OC Blades hitting the empty net secured it for them in the 5-7 Xplosion loss. The team got silver.

Overall a good weekend for the program with a 16-12 record including 6 shutouts. The teams are back to work at practices tonight. Getting ready for Midwest Wars in St Louis on 5/2-5/4.