MHR Game of the Year: T1EHL 16U Championship Game
Sometimes you just know.
There are times when you are watching a game, and before it’s even over – sometimes even before it’s half over – you know that you are witnessing an instant classic.
It can be the pace of the game, the fantastic individual efforts by players on both sides, an amazing comeback, a fantastic finish, multiple overtimes, a goaltender defying logic to keep his team in the game, an amazing game-winning or game-saving play or a combination of any – or all – of the above.
Of course, the higher the stakes, the more likely a game is to be considered a classic, but whatever factors conspire to make a game an instant gem, as a fan and a viewer you just know.
In the case of our MYHockey Rankings Game of the Year for the 2023-24 season, the contest was so epic that not only did we know it was the Game of the Year when it happened, it actually inspired us to create a top-five Games of the Year list for the first time.
Our top game checked all the boxes:
- A championship was on the line in the 16U Division of the Tier 1 Elite Hockey League (T1EHL)
- Multiple overtimes were involved (six to be exact!)
- The eventual winning team trailed, 2-0, heading into the third period.
- There was a disallowed goal.
- After rallying to tie the score at 2, the eventual winning team fell behind again, 2-1, only to score in the final minute to force the first extra session.
- Goalies foiled numerous scoring opportunities during the six overtimes and several posts were hit.
- The game was so long that the GameSheet, Inc. electronic scoresheet couldn’t finish the job and only made it through the first four overtimes.
On Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, Victory Honda and Dallas Stars Elite competed in our 2023 MHR Game of the Year, with Victory rallying to win the T1EHL 16U championship, 4-3, in six overtimes to prevent Dallas from repeating as champions at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn.
Victory Honda concluded the tournament with a 3-1-1 record and would go on to finish the season 55-19-1 and ranked eighth in the nation. The Stars also posted a 3-1-1 mark in Blaine as part of their 40-10-0 campaign that led to a No. 5 national ranking.
We should have known that we might be in store for a memorable title game when these two 16U juggernauts collided that February morning since the teams had met previously on Dec. 16, with Dallas scoring twice in a 1:18 span of the third period to tie the game before Victory won it, 6-5, on a goal by Nolan Kaminski in the final 30 seconds.
The championship tilt took a little while to heat up, however, with Chance Burlison staking the Stars to a 1-0 lead on an unassisted goal with 12:58 left in the first period. No more goals would be scored until 3:26 remained in the middle stanza. That’s when Landon Amrheim seemed to put Dallas in the driver’s seat with a tally that was assisted by Konstantin Deshevyy and Lucian Deering.
Victory Honda seized the momentum early in the final frame, however, with Whitford Denzin and Ethan Drabicki scoring slightly more than five minutes apart to even the score. Isaac Embury and Brayden Wade picked up assists on those goals.
Remember Wade’s name. We’re going to hear from him again.
Burlison wasted little time in regaining control for his team, scoring just 1:37 after Drabicki, a Colorado College commit, had tied it, with Deering again assisting. Victory turned up the heat for the next nine minutes but could not break through until 24 seconds remained in third period when Gairin Michalski managed to tie the game on a goal that was assisted by Drabicki and Wade.
They headed to the first overtime.
And the second.
Then the third
And a fourth.
Then onto the fifth.
Would this game ever end?
Yes!
If you watch the video by CLICKING HERE, it appears as though Wade deflects home the game-winner in the sixth overtime for his third point of the game to give Victory Honda the title.
Wesley Jefferson Swint II maintained his focus throughout the marathon to earn the victory in goal. He was credited with 28 saves through the first four overtimes, while Micah Adams was the hard-luck loser in goal for the Stars.
Click the links below for some highlights from this amazing game:
Victory hits the crossbar at the buzzer of the fourth OT.
A big save by Adams in the fifth OT.
An OT breakaway save by Swint II.
Great individual effort by a victory player and a better save by Adams.
Rapid-fire chances for both teams late in the second OT.
Another post, this one for Dallas, to end the first OT.
Congratulations to Victory Honda and Dallas Stars Elite 16U for playing in our MHR 2023-24 Game of the Year! Maybe we’ll need to do a Game of the Decade a few years from now?
