Bill Brooks survived some early round scares to win his first ever Tournament Title at the 03/20/10 "IceHouse" Tournament in Burlington, NJ!!!  For all the details click below - congrats to SJBHL veteran and our buddy Bill!!!

After some late scratches cut into the tournament field, 12 players made it out to Burlington, NJ, for the 2010 IceHouse Invitational held on Saturday March 20, 2010.  Each player played the other 11 players in the field 1x/each, and players were seeded for an elimination tournament based on the pool play records.  Players then proceeded to be placed in A, B, or C flight brackets depending on their performance in the elimination event...

Bill Brooks (NJ) - a sterling undefeated 11-0 in pool play, with each win by at least 2 goals or more.  Dominating, and he earned heoverall #1 seed heading into the tournament;

JG (NJ) - 10-1, with the only loss to Bill - #2 seed overall;

Jimmy Schwartz (NJ) - "the future" went 8-3 but won the tiebreaker over B-Dawg based on head to head record for the #3 seed;

Brian "B-Dawg" Nelson (PA) - also 8-3, his only losses were to the 3 players who finished higher than him - #4 seed;

Matt Meinzer (NY) - an impressive 6-5 in his tournament debut.  Matt brought great speed and good natural skills to the tables - he may be formidible in the very near future - #5 seed;

Marc Krasner (NJ) - a very impressive 6-5 for this p/t SJBHL player.  Krasner played little or no bubble hockey this past year but went out and posted an above .500 record in tournament play.  Nice job - #6 seed;

Larry Jefford (NJ) - 5-6, with the tiebreaker over Lib via head to head win.  #7 seed;

Lib Spector (NJ) - 5-6 to earn the #8 seed.  And he very nearly pulled an upset for the ages...

Bryan Meckley (PA) - 4-7 for Bryan.  He too hasn't played much bubble hockey lately (job and family come first - absolutely), so 4-7 all in all not too shabby.  #9 seed;

Pat Downs (NJ) - 2-9 in his first foray into the wild wacky world of bubble hockey.  But good things were on the horizon for Pat...#10 seed;

Joe Tavalare (NY) - a tough 1-10 in his tournament debut.  #11 seed;

Erik Johnston (NJ) - 0-11, the ole' bagel in his first ever bubble hockey tournament.  But I don't think anyone was more passionate or had more fun, and he very nearly won the C flight - more on that later.  #12 seed.

So the tournament play began with the 5 vs 12, 6 vs 11, 7 vs 10, and 8 vs 9 matchups in the opening round.  Each series was a best of 3, with the winner advancing on in A flight and the loser dropping down into the B flight.  All went according to form, as higher seeds Matt, Krasner, Larry, and Lib all advanced, albeit in some extremely tough and tight series.  A couple of the opening rounders went the full 3 games.   Next up #8 Lib battled #1 Bill, and the upset of the century nearly ensued.  Lib took game one, shocking Bill with timely offense and stingy "D."  Bill struck back decisively with a game 2 beatdown.  But instead of folding, Lib roared back and opened up a quick multi goal lead, and held that lead into the 3rd period.  But a flurry of Bill Brooks right d-man slapshots eventually were too much for Lib to overcome, and he fell in game #3.  #2 JG handled #7 Larry in 2 quick games.  #3 Jimmy had some issues with #6 Krasner, but in the end Jimmy had too much quickness and offense.  #4 Brian sent #5 Matt to the B flight.

The final 4 in A flight were the top 4 seeds - Bill, JG, Jimmy, and Brian.  Bill squared off vs Brian, JG vs Jimmy.  Both series were extremely competitive, both series went to a 3rd and final game, and both game 3's went deep into O/T.  Fantastic stuff!  Big plays, bigger shots, ridiculous saves.  But in the end, Bill and JG escaped by a single goal each for the right to fight for the A flight title.  Jimmy and Brian headed down to B flight.  In a bit of a scheduling snafu by yours truely, almost no one saw the Bill vs JG series, as other B flight series were underway on adjoining tables.  Bill won out in 2 hard fought games, including an O/T thriller in game #2, to win his first ever Tournament Title.  Congrats to Bill - A flight Champion of the 2010 Burlington Icehouse Invitational!!!

Down in B flight, Lib took out Joe, Matt put down Pat, Krasner rolled over Bryan, and Larry got by Erik.  Those 4 continued on in B flight, while the 4 losers went down to battle it out in single elimination games in C flight.  In a bit of an upset, Krasner mopped up Larry, using his slow deliberate pace to control the puck and game in each contest.  Matt took out Lib to set up a match up with Jimmy while Krasner met Brian.  Though Jimmy easily got past Matt, Brian had all sorts of problems with the suddenly dangerous Krasner.  The series went 3 games, and Krasner had the lead nearly all of game #3 until a late goal induced an epic O/T.  Both players had multiple chances to win game 3 with high percentage plays, but no one could put the puck in the net.  Brian finally broke through with a late goal to eliminate Krasner and set up a B flight semifinal with Jimmy.  This one was another war, but B-Dawg showed "the future" how it is done today, winning the series and earning at minimum the B flight title and the right to battle JG for the 2nd place A flight trophy.  But B-Dawg's tourney stopped short of that goal, as he fell in a 2-0 sweep to JG.

Congrats to JG (2nd place A flight) and Brian "B-Dawg" Nelson (1st place B flight)

Down in the C flight, Erik surprised Bryan for his first "w" of the night and the right to move on to the C flight championship game.  There he met good buddy Pat, who elimiated Joe.  Erik and Pat met in a throwdown, a one game for it all slugfest that went ideep into O/T and right down to the final goal before Pat stuffed the puck in Erik's net for a "W" and the C flight crown.

Congrats to Pat Downs, C flight Champion!!!

Thanks to all who came out for this tourney.  The next one will most likely be in October 2010.  check back here often at njbubblehockey.org for updates on upcoming tournaments, league info, and all that is happening in bubble hockey in New Jersey and the world!  Bubble On!!!

JG