Comments 02/23/10
Last weekends quarter-final games in Dallas were exciting with 3 shutout wins and only one loss in a close shootout.

Our first game on Saturday was against our Houston rivals the BAHHA Hounds. The hounds gave the Hitmen a good game but fell to the Hitmen's better play by a shutout score of  2 to 0.  Our goalie, Tyler Bradford, was on his game Saturday morning keeping all 19 of the Hounds shots out of the net. Scoresheet

The second game against the San Antonio Thunder was also a win for the Hitmen. Fresh off of a win against the DPSC Stars earlier in the day; the Thunder played hard and tried their best to get their second win. But, their inexperience and short bench versus a dominating Hitmen team would result in another loss for the Thunder team. Hitmen win in a shutout 9 to 0 on a shot count of  50 to 16. Another shutout for goalie Tyler Bradford. Scoresheet

Game three on early Sunday morning pitted the Hitmen against the Euless DPSC Stars. After being beaten by the San Antonio Thunder on Saturday, the Stars were determined to win and played their best game all season against the Hitmen. With Hitmen goalie Quinn Noel in net fending off some excellent play by the Stars; and the Stars goalie Keenan Yarbrough in net fending off the massive volley of shots delivered by the Hitmen; the game was tied 3 to 3 at the end of regulation play with a shot count of  Hitmen's 37 to Stars' 20, Overtime also ended with the game tied at 3 to 3 leading to a shootout for the win.. In spite of Quinn's best efforts, the Stars managed to score 1 shootout goal to none for the Hitmen. This resulted in the only loss for the Hitmen in the quarter finals. Fortunately, having tied the Stars in regulation play resulted in 1 game point for the Hitmen while the Stars received 2 game points for the win. This became very important later in the day. Scoresheet

The fourth and last game pitted the Hitmen against the Dallas Penguins. Since a loss in this game amounted to sudden death for the Hitmen's remaining playoff season, the team came out ready to play. Game play was fast and tough with the Penguins determined to be the spoilers (the Penguins were already eliminated from advancement, but they could eliminate us too by winning) resulting in a game filled with far too many penalties. Fortunately for us, the Penguins earned most of them. In the end, the Hitmen came out on top 5 to 0 handing goalie Tyler Bradford his third shutout for the weekend. Scoresheet

Because the Stars lost one game to San Antonio, they ended the quarter finals with 6 game points for 3 wins. The Hitmen earned 6 game points for 3 wins and 1 game point for the tie and shoot out loss resulting in a quarter final win with 7 game points. As a result, the Hitmen will advance to the semi-finals while the other four teams: DPSC Stars, Dallas Penguins, BAHHA Hounds, and San Antonio Thunder, were eliminated. A thank you to these teams for all the good hockey games we had with them throughout the season.

Congratulations Hitmen.

Comments 02/17/10
Well the Pittsburgh Tournament is over and everyone is back home. This was a really fun tournament. The Hitmen took second place in our division losing to the Freeport Arrows from New York. The Arrows are the 1st Seed  AA Qualifiers for the New York State Eastern Zone which means they're a really good team. The Hitmen played them in two great games, but in the end the Arrows simply out-played us. Congratulations to the Arrows for their first place win.

The Hitmen did win their game against the Pittsburgh Predators on Saturday. It was a good game and the teams were very evenly matched. The Hitmen prevailed in the end by a score of 5 to 4.

A few more thoughts about the tournament:
I thought the officiating and overall tournament operation was really good. Everyone can always find something to dislike about the officiating in individual games, but on whole I thought the officiating was even handed and pretty good. Compared to our experience in Orlando last month, this tournament was fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate to take a Hitmen team there again.

Comments 02/13/10
Our first game of the President's Day tournament in Pittsburgh ended in a tie. The boys played pretty well and the Chartiers Valley Colts were a good match up. The Hitmen jumped ahead in the first period with a dominating offense, but the Colts were able to come back and take the lead in the third period. The Hitmen answered with a score to tie the game at 5-5 which was the final. Once again minor penalties left the Hitmen short several times during the game and the Colts were able to capitalize on their power plays. All in all it was a pretty good game.

The Hitmen enjoyed the snow in Pittsburgh. Besides the snowball fights, they also improvised sleds to slide down a hill near the hotel. Sorry the pictures are overexposed; I forgot to switch back to normal camera settings instead of those I use for the rinks.

Comments 02/10/10
Sunday's game against the Odessa Jackalopes turned out better than our two games against the Aces and we left Dallas with a win. There's not many action pictures this time as I was concentrating on video for this game. Hopefully, I'll get around to editing and posting the video soon.

Comments 02/06/10
Two really tough loses to one of the best teams in our bracket. Our guys played well, but the Aces played better.

Everyone had a good time at Twin Peaks Restaurant for dinner. Thanks Fran for setting this up for everyone. See the pictures.

Comments 02/03/10
The past five games have been very good because we won! What more can you say?

Hitmen 3 - Thunder 2
Hitmen 9 - Thunder 1
Hitmen 9 - Stars 3
Hitmen 5 - Penguins 1
Hitmen 3 - Stars 1

Counting the final game win in Orlando against the Blackhawks; the Hitmen are on a six game winning streak. Keep up the good work guys and good luck as we go to Dallas for our final three regular season games.

The January 23-24 weekend was the Hitmen's host weekend. Many thanks go to Fran, Monica, and Kathleen for putting together a memorable experience to the visiting teams.

Also, many thanks to our sponsors who helped make our excellent host weekend possible.

Comments - 01/21/10
We're back from our MLK tournament in Orlando, Florida. It was an interesting trip. The Sportsplex facility in Maitland, FL, where we played all our games was unbelievable. Most unbelievable of all was that our hotel was actually close to our game location.

The boys lost their first three games, which was very disappointing. In the first game against the Palm Beach Blackhawks the boys played hard but the game was full of penalties on both sides. The penalty count led to a running clock in the third period which started with the Blackhawks up 3 to  0. The Hitmen came back scoring 2 goals in the third period, but they ran out of time to tie the game up. Blackhawks won 3 to 2.

As I said, this game was full of penalties, but the most outrageous event was probably the beat down by the Blackhawk goalie given to Kevin Rullman. Unbelievably, the goalie was given only a 2 minute minor for roughing after holding Kevin down and pounding him with the help of a Blackhawk defenseman. Take a look at the video on YouTube: Goalie Gone Wild

Our next game on Saturday afternoon was against the hosting team: Orlando Knights. By comparison, this was a clean and uneventful game. Unfortunately, the Hitmen lost 6 to 3.

The Sunday night game was against the Tampa Bay Stingrays. This one was another penalty filled game that resulted in a third period running clock. The Hitmen lost 2 to 1, but I think the terrible refereeing had more to do with the loss than anything else. The boys played an excellent power game that was one of their best performances of the year in spite of losing.

Monday afternoon's game was the consolation game with the Blackhawks once again. This meeting of the two teams would turn out different. There were still plenty of penalties to go around, but, after the great game play from the night before, the Hitmen were ready to win this game. Hitmen win 3 to 1.

Now a few observations and  personal comments ...

While the Hitmen only placed 3rd in the official standings; unofficially, the Hitmen won the tournament. Based on discussions with tournament officials and other team players and parents in attendance, we found out the following issues:

It turns out that the Blackhawks played their first game against us with a suspended, and therefore ineligible, player in the game. When this came to light the next day, the Blackhawks should have been required by the tournament to forfeit the game giving the win to the Hitmen.

We later learned that the Knights who also defeated us on Saturday had played an unrostered Junior B goalie disguised as their regular rostered goalie. The Knights should have been required by the tournament officials to forfeit the game giving the win to the Hitmen.

After Sunday's game, we were informed that the Tampa Bay Stingrays had brought in 4 unrostered Junior level players to supplement their team. The Stingrays should have been required by the tournament officials to forfeit the game giving the win to the Hitmen.

Basically, the Hitmen were the only team in our division with a valid roster of players.

In my opinion, the funny business with the team rosters; the bizarre refereeing on the ice; and the poor and disinterested response by the tournament officials, leads me to conclude that the Orlando Tournament is not a very good one to go to. Particularly for any team not from Florida.

News - 12/21/09
After being offline for a few weeks, I'm finally able to upload new photos of the Hitmen games. I don't have notes for many of the older games, so I don't have any comments to add for games before December 12 other than to say that we won some and lost some.

On December 12 our first game was against the McKinney Lions (Coach Dolan) at the new Dr. Pepper Star Center in McKinney. I'm not sure where the molasses slow, sleeping zombies wearing the Hitmen uniforms came from, but they played terribly. No excuses for this game; the McKinney team out-skated, out-shot, and out-scored the Hitmen 8 to 0. Wow, what a disappointment.

Our second game that Saturday was against the Odessa Jackalopes and what a good game that was. The Odessa team had a 10-2 record and was in second place in our division. The boys had been nervous about playing this team, but after Saturday morning's total drubbing at the hands of McKinney, they came out ready to play. No sleeping zombies on the ice this time. This was a great game with the Hitmen winning 7 to 4.

Sunday's game we once again faced Coach Dolan's McKinney Lions team and this time things would be different. No zombies this day. After the win against Odessa on Saturday, the team was fired up and ready to play Hockey! The Hitmen scored first and soon were on top of the Lions 2-0. The Hitmen slowed down some in the second period and the Lions evened up the game to 2-2. The third period was a hard fought defensive game with both teams giving it everything they had. With only 1.8 seconds left on the clock, the Lions managed to squeak in a game winning goal. Congratulations go to the McKinney Lions for the 3-2 win, but the Hitmen showed everyone that Saturday's miserable loss was a fluke and that they can give as good as they get.

The Team Christmas party last Saturday night was fun. Most of the boys made it to Joe's Crab Shack for the party. Joe's is a fun place for things like this. Surprise Santa white elephant gifts were exchanged between the boys and coach. I've posted some of the photos I took even though the lighting was terrible. I also have an IPOD compatible video available for download.
Download Chistmast Party Video

Current News - 10/25/09
Well Sunday's game was a tale of the penalty box. We had too many and the Penguins took advantage of it by scoring 3 goals on power plays. Everybody played well and looked good on the ice, but the Penguins win 4 to 3.

Hitmen #27 Kevin Rullman scored an unassisted goal. Hitmen #29 Layne Corliss scored a goal with an assist from #11 Jason Crabtree and #5 Brennan Obrien. Hitmen #Greg Tishkevich scored a goal with an assist from #6 Sam Kyte. PointStreak Score Sheet      Score Sheet PDF

News - 10/24/09
The Houston Hitmen Midget Major A team took on the Dallas Penguins Major Midget A team at the ITC in Richardson, TX. It was a hard fought game.

Hitmen #5 Brennan Obrien had 2 goals with 2 assists from #11 Jason Crabtree. Hitmen #21 Jamie Clemson scored a goal with an assist from #27 Kevin Rullman. Hitmen #11 Jason Crabtree scored, with an assist by #6 Sam Kyte, to tie the game at 4-4 in the final minute of  regulation play forcing the game into overtime.

In overtime play, an agressive shot by the Penguins was deflected by Hitmen goalie #30 Quinn Noel which took a lucky bounce off the glass and into the stick of Penguins #25 Marcus Ahlqvist who was able to make the sudden death goal to win the game for the Penguins. Final score was Penguins 5 to Hitmen 4 in overtime. PointSteak Score Sheet     Score Sheet PDF

News - 10/18/09
The Houston Hitmen Midget Major A team took on the Houston Wild Midget Major AA team yesterday in a scrimmage game at Memorial City Ice. Both teams played well and looked really good on the ice. The final score was Wild 8 to Hitmen 4.

News - 09/08/09
Texas ShootOut Tournament - Dallas, TX

Team Texas Hitmen Midget Majors take second place in the Texas Shoot-Out Tournament in Dallas. The Team went to the Championship game against the McKinney Lions with a 3-1 record for the tournament.

In the Championship game the Hitmen took the lead 1-0 in the second period and kept the lead until the final 4 minutes of regulation play when the Lions were able to score to tie the game. Regulation play ended with a 1-1 tie. In overtime play the Lions managed to score first ending the game in sudden death.

Hitmen play was excellent in this tournament and is a good indicator that the Hitmen Midget Majors are in a good position to compete in this season's games.