On Wednesday night, May 8, the Green Bay Gamblers defeated the Sioux City
Musketeers, 6-2, to win the US Jr A National Championship.
 
Sioux City, which ended its season at 25-34-1, qualified for the tournament
as the host team and surprisingly won four straight games to earn a spot in
the championship game as the Cinderella team.  The six-team tourney
featured teams from the United States Hockey League (USHL), the North
American Junior Hockey League (NAJHL), and the American Frontier Hockey
League (AFHL).
 
SC was led by two players who will be playing DivI hockey next year.
Goalie Erik Day, who was picked up by SC in a trade with Des Moines,
backstopped SC to a 3-1 upset win over Rochester (Minn.), 38-29-1, in the
semifinals after wins over Billings (Mont.), Springfield (Ill.), and
Detroit Compuware in the round robin portion of the tourney.  Day will play
at Minnesota next year.
 
Merrimack recruit Sandy Cohen led all players in scoring through the round
robin portion with 7-5--12 in 3 games.  Cohen scored five goals, a tourney
record, in Sioux City's 8-6 win over Billings, including four in the first
period.  He added two goals and three assists in a 7-3 win over Compuware.
Cohen's incredible tourney performance followed a mark of 10-10--20 in 9
USHL playoff games and 27-27--54 in 42 regular season games.
 
Green Bay went from last to first in only its second season, turning a
9-38-1 mark in 1994-95 into 49-17-3 this year.  GB won the USHL regular
season title, the USHL playoff crown, and the national title.
 
The Gamblers were led by several DivI recruits.  Among them: defensemen Dan
Enders (UNH) and Alex Brooks (Wisconsin), and forwards Brian MacDonald and
Aaron Fox (both Mankato State).  Fox was GB's leading scorer.
 
In addition, Gamblers' coach Don Granato added a third major championship
to his resume.  Granato was a member of the 1985 Burnsville (Minn.) HS
state champions, as well as skating for Wisconsin's 1990 NCAA DivI
Championship team.
 
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Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
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