Friday night's chants of "We want the Cup!" turned to "We got the Cup!" as captains Logan O'Connor and Ryan Schwalbe led the rest of the Stampede into the Sioux Falls Convention Center's first banquet room on Monday night. Between them was held the holy grail of United States junior hockey - the Clark Cup.
It was a beautiful moment, a culmination of all the hard word put into the team by the players and coaching staff the past few seasons. It was also a special moment for the Denny Sanford Premier Center, a facility that will shortly boast a championship banner in the rafters to finish off an incredible inaugural season. But the most remarkable thing is to look back at the on-ice product at the start of the season. Opening night on home ice had a bunch of promising, but raw young boys playing in front of a near NHL-size crowd of 10,678 fans. The atmosphere was nearly as intense as I've ever witnessed at a hockey game, but the boys did not have their legs under them whatsoever.
It took a few months, but the team finally started to get the hang of things and - with the additions of guys like projected 2015 second round pick Cooper Marody and Mikey Eyssimont, and the rapid development of 2016 top NHL prospect Kieffer Bellows - began rising through the standings to finish the year in the fourth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
The big boys stepped it up in the playoffs with Troy Loggins, Dakota Joshua (what a great name, but I'm biased), Bellows, Eyssimont, Marody and O'Connor combining for an incredible 37 goals and 79 points in just 12 games. Loggins would clinch the playoff MVP award with 10 goals, and tied in total points with Eyssimont (16). Joshua, a fifth round pick by Toronto in 2014, had 13 points and four goals, including one in the Cup-clinching game which just so happened to be played on his birthday.
In goal, Stefanos Lekkas was lights out, collecting nine wins, a 2.10 goals against average and a .932 save percentage. He was brilliant in one of the best campaigns ever played by a goalie in Sioux Falls.
The season is now over. The Cup is won, and a good number of players will now move on to bigger and better things in their hockey careers. However, a strong nucleus will remain for next year's squad, led by none other than Bellows and Lekkas. They'll be the franchise centerpieces next season, and will be surrounded by some intriguing talent in the Stampede's 2015 top pick Teemu Pulkkinen (35 goals, 74 points and a plus-25 in 47 games with the Espoo Blues of the Finnish Junior-A SM-Liiga), Luverne, MN native Chaz Smedsrud (a dominating top line player for the Cardinals the past few seasons) and Ales Stezka, a top Czech goaltender eligible for the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. These are just a few of the exciting new Stampede prospects. The full list of 2015 USHL Phase II draft picks can be found here.
The good residents of Stampede Country will have to wait a few months before once again filling up the affectionately player-nicknamed "Snake Pit". But that doesn't mean there won't be exciting opportunities for fans in the meantime. Try-Out Camp is just a few weeks away, so be sure to come out to the Denny June 12th-15th to get your first glimpse at the USHL's stars of tomorrow. Barring no news on the head coaching front in the next few days, I'll talk to you then.
Bleed Stampede!
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