Kyle's team was one of eight teams that qualified for the NY State Championship Tournament, so off we went to Buffalo the weekend of March 17.  The team took a bus up for the 7 hour ride on Thursday night arriving around 1:30am.  The eight teams were split into two brackets and the top two teams from each bracket advanced to the semi-finals.

The next morning they played a team from White Plains and got smoked and it looked like it wasn't going to work out very well.  The boys rallied in the evening though and played a team from Bear Mountain, whom they outplayed but couldn't solve the goalie, who played out of his head.  They were losing 1-0 before Bear Mountain scored an empty net goal with 1.5 seconds left.  The inability to score 1 goal would come back to haunt them. 

The next day, the team and parents set out to Niagara Falls for a fun outing.  

The spirit was still there on Saturday despite the disheartening losses and the boys wanted to prove that they belonged in the tournament, which they did that evening by defeating Batavia 5-3.  Afterwards we celebrated with a late evening at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, where Buffalo wings were invented. 

Now here is where it got interesting. Here were the preliminary results of Bracket 2: 

If the boys would have scored 1 goal against Bear Mountain in the game they dominated they would have won the tie breakers and would have advanced to the semi-finals on Sunday.  The consolation prize for losing though was that Kyle and I got to fly out to Bozeman, MT from Buffalo on Sunday to join Sue and Justin at the Yellowstone Club for skiing and fun with our friends, the Gallens.  So not all bad.

It was a great capstone for Kyle's travel hockey career to qualify for the tournament and show they belonged with the state's best.  Last year the team lost in the last game of the season to miss out on this opportunity so I was really happy for him and the team.  They had a great time and it has been wonderful to see him grow, on and off the ice.  Next stop, college!

If you click in the bottom right hand corner of the slide show it will go to full screen if you want more detail.