Dallas Junior Hockey Association

The DJHA Mite team took home runner-up honors in the Fall Round-Up tournament in Dallas during the Thanksgiving holidays from November 23-25.

 

The Mites churned through their round-robin bracket beating the other teams with ease. The Pens beat the Brahmas 15-2 on Friday morning. In the afternoon, DJHA squared off against the Houston Hurricanes and handily beat their opponents 16-0. For the Saturday game, the boys played against a familiar foe and were able to top the Texas Aces 14-1. Advancing to the semi-finals on Sunday morning, the DJHA Mites played another local team, the Alliance Bulldogs. Again, the Penguins notched another victory, 8-0, putting them into the championship game.   

 

The finals were played on Sunday afternoon against their cross-town rivals the Ice Jets. These teams are no strangers to each other as this would be the ninth time to square off this season. The Penguins started terribly putting themselves in a 3-0 hole to the Ice Jets after just six minutes in the first period.   The DJHA boys could have easily given up and been satisfied with their other games of the tournament, but they decided to fight through their early game problems. Three minutes into the second period, William Stromp broke the ice and got the Pens on the board with their first goal. At the end of the second period, the Ice Jets were up 3-1. The game speed picked up throughout the game as both teams wanted to show their best. Five minutes into the third period, Penguin Lincoln Hatten snuck one past the Ice Jets goalie to make the game 2-3. What seemed like an impossible deficit to overcome in the first period, DJHA now saw the possibility of evening up the score. The DJHA players continued their fight against their highly skilled rivals and were rewarded with a tying goal by William Stromp assisted by Chase Nies with two minutes left in the game. The game ended in a 3-3 tie after regulation time and moved into an overtime period. With two Penguins in the penalty box, the Ice Jets peppered away at the DJHA defense, and this proved to be the difference. With 59 seconds left in OT, the Ice Jets pushed the puck by the Pens goalie and won the championship 4-3.   As expected, this was another great game by two teams that did not give up.