Scott’s 10 points helps ’05 Blue Devils to Ultimate Showcase title

By Jim den Hollander
Publisher/Editor
Saukhockey.info
John Scott clearly never tires of playing hockey. After wrapping up a solid sophomore season with the RWD varsity hockey team with points in 17 games, Scott has returned to the Blue Devils organization.
This season, the ’05 squad was by invitation only and rather than practicing out of Tomah, the team is heading across the Mississippi River to La Crescent under the tutelage of former NHL pro player Eriah Hayes.
The AAA team took part in the ‘Ultimate Showcase Minnesota’ tournament at the Tria Rink in St. Paul, the practice rink of the Minnesota Wild April 16-18.
He found a familiar face in the lineup when Brady Baldwin, also from RWD was asked to join the team for the weekend with one player absent, observing COVID-19 protocols.
Scott enjoyed a huge weekend and helped power the team to an undefeated weekend with 10 points in five games in the four-team event.
The Blue Devils played twice on both Friday and Saturday and returned for the Championship game on Sunday.
On Friday, the Devils opened play with a 6-1 win against the Midwest Warriors from the Andover, Minn. area
.Scott opened the scoring in the contest with a solo effort and added an assist later in the contest.
Against the Minnesota Enforcers later Friday, Scott added another goal in a 4-3 edge against the Minnesota Enforcers which plays out of several Twin Cities area ice surfaces.
The team wrapped up round robin play early Saturday with a 9-0 whipping of the My Edge National All Stars. Scott led the charge with three more goals and a set up while Baldwin also collected a goal.
Ranked on top after round robin play, the Devils took on the Enforcers who surprisingly gave them the toughest match early, in the semis. This time around, it was a 7-2 win for the Devils who secured a berth in the championship game with the win, thanks in part to Scott who fired the game winner, putting the Devils up 3-0 in the first period.
It was the All Stars again in the championship game, but it was they put up a stronger fight this time around, an early first period goal standing up as the lone score until the third period went the Blue Devils widened thegap. The game winner came about four minutes in and Scott added insurance with his goal a little over six minutes from the final horn.

Not a great camera angle, but this is John Scott jamming home the insurance goal in a 4-1 in the Minnesota Ultimate Showcase AAA Tournament in St. Paul April 18.

Wilcox, Othmer and Dietl play in Kohlman Cups

By Jim den Hollander
Publisher/Editor
Saukhockey.info
This past season saw the RWD Peewee ‘A’ squad bring home a Wisconsin Amateur Hockey Association (WAHA) Peewee 3A Peewee Consolation Championship plaque, but several players from that team have continued to play into the late spring/early summer months.
Among them are three team members: Ethan Wilcox, Paige Othmer and Hailey Dietl were invited to participate with their respective Region Four teams.
The tournament is an early look at some of the top peewees in the state, playing on one of the six Regional teams that went head-to-head in one of four tournaments.
Othmer was a member of the 2008 Region 4 Girls team while Ethan Wilcox played on the ‘09 Boys team and Dietl performed for the ‘08 Girls squad.
Wilcox hit the ice first playing in the hockey-crazy town of Hudson, Wisconsin March 27-28. In the first game, the Region 4 squad played Region 3 (Milwaukee Area) and dropped a 2-1 decision, then battled Region 6 (Tomah north to Hudson) to a 3-3 draw, both games played on the Saturday.
Those results ranked the Region 4 team third in its pool, and it returned to play Sunday against Region 1 (Northern Wisconsin) pummeling them 15-2 to wrap up fifth spot overall.
Two weeks later, Othmer and Dietl made the trip to Chippewa Falls to play in their respective tournaments.
Dietl’s ‘09 team went winless through round robin, dropping a 6-0 decision to a team made up of players from Regions 2 (Central Wisconsin) and 3 (Green Bay), then dropped one goal decisions to Region 1/6 (3-2) and Region 5 (2-1).
Othmer’s squad meanwhile went undefeated in pool play, grabbing a 5-3 win against Region 3 and collecting a 4-2 win against Region 6. With the top spot in the ‘National’ Pool, the Region 4 team was scheduled to play the second tanked team from the ‘American’ Division, Region 5 in a semi-final match with the winner advancing to the tournament championship.
Unfortunately, semi-final and final scores were unavailable at the time this was written.

Lake Delton Ice Arena wraps up with first Ice Wars tourney

By Jim den Hollander

Publisher/Editor

Saukhockey.info

The final official event of the hockey season locally took place with the running of Lake Delton Ice Arena ‘Ice Wars’ held April 9-11.
The event brought together 120 skaters at the Squirt and Peewee level – a unique tournament that saw individual registrations as opposed to teams signing up. While a solid number of locals took part in the event, there was also players from as far away as the St. Louis area involved as well as across Wisconsin and other neighboring states.
The 60 players at each level were split into two groups alphabetically and run through the paces by Dells Ducks Assistant Coach and local skating guru, Anthony Rohde while under the watchful eye of some of the area’s top youth, college and high school coaches. Four coaches at each level ‘drafted’ players during these sessions.
Immediately after the second session at each level, players returned to the ice area where Lake Delton Ice Owner Aaron Kirby announced team members draft style and they proceeded to the ice where they were handed a jersey representing either Army, Navy, Air Force or Marines.
Each team was guaranteed three round robin matches with the top two returning for a fourth to settle the championship.
In the Squirt Division, Team Navy and Team Marines squared off in the Championship game with Team Marines prevailing and the Peewee game saw Team Air Force overcoming Team Marines in the final.