Rockford making its mark

In case you were wondering how Coach Mike Haviland is doing in his new home at the AHL Blackhawks affiliate Rockford IceHogs, one look at the standings in the Western Conference will tell you he is doing quite well.  At the halfway point of the season, the Hogs sit in first place, having recently ended a 16-game point streak.  Martin St. Pierre has a 14-game scoring streak, the longest in the AHL this season.  St. Pierre leads the IceHogs with 44 points including 31 assists, and is second in the league in total scoring.  There is still a long way to go in the season, and the pesky Chicago Wolves are nipping at the Hogs heels, one point back in the standings.  The two teams meet tonight in Rockford with the top spot in the divison on the line.  (No local TV here covers the game, you can listen or watch on the web)

Coach Havliand is building off of the Coach of the Year season he had in Norfolk, last year before the club moved to its new home.  Coaching in the AHL is very different as your NHL ‘parent’ club is likely to take your best, or at least borrow them to fill in for injuries, or send players ’down’, altering team chemistry.  Congratulations on a fine first half, let’s hope the second half is as good and leads to a great playoff run!

 

3 Junior Players Selected as CHA All Stars

It is with great pride that the Junior Titans staff would like to congratulate the following Junior C Major players for being selected to participate in the Continental Hockey Association All-Star Jamboree 2008: 

Ben Yuro, Mike Garbandt,  & Joe Torrisi

The All Star Jamboree will take place in Binghamton NY Jan 18-20.  We know these players will represent the Titan organization well!

From The CHA press release: 

The Continental Hockey Assoc. is pleased to announce its 1^st Annual All Star Jamboree Weekend.  This great event will be held January 19-21, 2008 and will be hosted by the Binghamton Senators at the Chenango Ice Rink.

The CHA will field six All Star Teams covering all three levels of competition presently offered in the league.  The Southeast Junior Hockey League will also be sending their All Star team to the event.  The Hampton Roads Independent team along with the Binghamton Senators “A” and “B” teams will also be participating.

College scouts from the NCAA and ACHA have been invited to attend the All Star Weekend.  All Tier III A teams along with the USHL, NAHL, OPJHL, QMJHL and Golden Horseshoe Leagues have also been invited to attend.

There will be a different look to this All Star event than in the past.  The C Minor Teams (Development League) will compete against each other.  However the C Major Teams and the Junior B teams will select their All Star players who will be put into a general pool of players.  We will then select the players based on age to participate in either the U17 or U19 age group.  Each age group will field two teams.  The U17 teams will play each other as well as the SEJHL All Star Team and the U19 teams will play each other as well as the Hampton Roads Independent Team.

 

8 Tier 2 Teams head west to Hershey

A busy holiday weekend is on tap for some of the T2 Titan teams.  The Hershey Jr. Bears are hosting a Thanksgiving tournament with all the fixin’s.  The Mites, the Squirt A, Squirt B, PeeWee A black, PeeWee B, Bantam A black and 2 Bantam B teams will be competing at 4 different venues from Friday ’til Sunday.  Best of luck to all of the Titan teams.  See you in Chocolate World!

 

Rockford ready to Rock

The AHL’s newest franchise, the Rockford Ice Hogs are ready for opening night in their new home. Their Coach, AHL coach of the year, Mike Haviland is ready to get started in their newly renovated arena.  The NHL Blackhawks affiliate moved to Ill. from Virginia where they played as the Admirals.

Coach George Haviland, who is in Chicago for the Nike Bauer AAA Tournament and is staying with his brother, toured the new arena yesterday and reports its modern, professional, and ready for action.  Tonight’s game against the San Antonio Rampage is a sellout.  Like the NJ Devils, Mike’s team played 12 road games waiting for their new home to be ready.  They fared better than the Devils going 5-3-1 during this time.  Mike felt they could have easily been 8-1 and hopes to again return to the AHL playoffs.

Story about the new Arena:

http://www.rrstar.com/homepage/x676127707

 

Titan Bantam A Black is Back

It didn’t take long for the Titans Bantam A Black team to shake off last weeks loss and get back to their winning ways. The boys went back to basics against Toms River with a non-stop forecheck, solid defense, goaltending and timely scoring to beat the Blackhawks 3-1. It seemed like there was not a loose puck that the Titans didn’t control.

The mighty mites Conte, Quinn, and Sabs were relentless winning the battles in the corners for the puck against a big Toms River team. Pat Bruno opened the scoring at 6:09 of the 1st period when he retrieved his own re-bound and put it past a down Blackhawks goalie for a 1-0 lead that stuck till the end of the 1st. 

The 2nd period saw the game turn into a defensive stalemate when the goalie for the Blackhawks and Titan goalie Thomas Wiedmann turned away everything put on them. Thomas was replaced at 8:43 of the 2nd to bring in Cody Reilly to hold down the fort. A bouncing centering pass at 3:36 resulted in a clear breakaway for Toms River. Reilly got a piece of the puck but it snuck in to tie the game at 1-1. Charlie Morton answered right back at 1:21 with a blistering shot over the Blackhawk goalie’s shoulder to close out the 2nd period at 2-1. The 3rd period saw the Titans dominate time of possession and shots and if not for a sharp Blackhawks goalie, this could have been a blowout. A goal that resulted from hard work along the boards was scored from Timmy Behan assisted by Will Conte and Charlie Morton to end the scoring at 13:35 of the 3rd. Reilly was perfect the rest of the way to maintain the 3-1 lead and victory. Keep up the hard work boys!!

 

Chowder Cup Execs Keen on Titans

Since 1984, Bob and Mike O’Connell, Directors of the New England Pro-Am Hockey League have conducted the prestigious Chowder Cup summer Junior Tournament.  They are two of the most respected hockey people in the East. The Titans have participated in a number of their tournaments at the Junior Level.  They run the original Junior Tourney as well as the annual International Pre-Draft Tournament which began in 1989.  This coming summer the Men’s Chowder Cup will consist of 80 teams, Women’s Chowder Cup will consist of 36 teams, Junior Chowder Cup will consist of 80 teams, the International Pre-Draft will be comprised of 48 teams and their latest tournament will be the Mini-Chowder Cup consisting of 24 teams. Entries will come from the United States, Canada, Siberia, Latvia, and Belarus.

In entering Titan teams into the mini-Chowder, their latest tournament, Mike had the following response: “You know my feelings regarding the Titans.  A great Organization that is an asset to any of our tournaments”.  Thanks Mike.  Coming from you, that is a tremendous compliment. The Jr. Titans name is synonomous with respect and moving players to the next level. Significant effort is spent building and cultivating our relationships at the Junior and College level; our good name carries weight with Elite Tournaments like the Chowder Cup series and our relationships can benefit all Jr. Titans (both at the youth and Junior levels).

A defenseman who played for our Jr. Titans Sr. Chowder Cup team this past August has committed to Holy Cross for the 2008-2009 season. Kyle Atkins currently plays for the Brockville Braves of the CJHL - he is 6′1″ 195 lbs. 

 Atkins: Junior A Playoff MVP for Brockville

Remember, we all wear that same uniform.  Everyone should work to preserve and enhance our reputation through their actions. 

 

Titans learn about the college process

On Tues. Oct. 23, 2007, Dr. Harvey Kesselman who is the Dean of Education at Stockton College here in New Jersey came to speak to some of our players.  Players and parents from the Jr B and Jr C team as well as Midget National and Midget American teams were treated to an entertaining and informative symposium by Dr. Kesselman.

Dr. Kesselman spoke about the college admission process covering everything from SAT’s, to applying to schools, financial aid, scholarships and athletics, not only at Stockton, but at schools throughout the country.

It was a great learning experience for the players as well as the parents about what is involved in the admission process.

The Jr Titans would like to thank Dr. Kesselman for taking the time to speak to our organization. We are lucky to have him within our organization!!

 

MYHockey Ratings give good info on T1 opponents

Midwestyouthhockey.com does a great job ranking youth teams from all over the country.  Its focus is on over 3000 T1 and T2 AA level teams.  It has a ‘Hockey Nerd’ open mathematical formula for deriving ratings between clubs using strength of schedule, records, and goal differential to come up with a “relative strength” rating for each team .  The score it creates helps a ranked team estimate how competitve another opponent will be. Thus, a better team could lose most of their games but rank higher than a .500 team with a softer schedule.  For example, the AAATitan 95 PW Major team is rated 27th in the nation. Part of that rating is because they beat #16, the Pitt.Junior Penguins, and their loss to West Seneca actually helped boost their ratings as WS was #5 in the nation at the time of their game.  The ratings will jump around early in the season with each weekend’s results, posted on Wednesdays.

Stay tuned, several of our Titan teams have a chance to make a national statement. The rankings higher levels often include Atlantic Youth League opponents like the Rockets, Avalanche, LI, and Mid Fairfield Ct. and each win against these top tier programs will improve the rankings.

 

Coach Mike Haviland interviewed on Blackhawks.com

Coach Mike Haviland, AHL Coach of the Year and head coach of the Rockford Ill. affiliate of the NHLs Chicago Blackhawks was recently interviewed for Blackhawks.com. His team has moved from Norfolk to Rockford to be closer to the main club. Best of luck in your new season Mike!

Mikes 2 part interview:

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=338887

http://blackhawks.nhl.com/team/app?articleid=337334&page=NewsPage&service=page