Valley Thunder U16 team wins national title

Skating into the 2022-2023 youth competitive hockey season, Valley Thunder head coach Jamie Smith had a hunch that his U16 team could do something special. A few months later, the Thunder made history.

The Thunder used a 2-1 win over the Arizona Junior Sun Devils to win a USA Hockey U16 Tier II national championship April 3 in Amherst, New York.

“I knew we could make some noise in the national tournament if we got there,” Smith, a longtime youth and prep hockey coach in the Valley, said.

With the win, the Thunder became the first Valley-based youth hockey team to win a national title.

Brody Richard scored the game-winning goal with 8 minutes, 29 seconds left in the third period to help the Thunder win the game and the national championship. It was the second of two unanswered goals for the Thunder. About two minutes after Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the second, Mason Holler tied the game at 1 with a power play goal.

The Thunder outshot Arizona 39-21 and Thunder goalie Liam VanBuskirk made 20 saves in the win.

The Thunder finished 6-0-0 in the tourney. Smith said the team arrived in the New York area about five days ahead of the tourney, and was also able to get three exhibition games in before the national tournament started.

“I wanted to get them down there early. I thought we had a pretty good opportunity for a good run. It paid off for us,” Smith said.

The Thunder advanced to the finals with a 5-1 win over the Reston Raiders of Virginia in the semis. Daniel Matveev scored twice. Grant Barksdale, Domnin Effimov and Afanasy Effimov also scored.

During the Thunder’s first four games in the tournament, the Valley squad won in overtime with shorthanded goals twice.

Domnin Effimov scored shorthanded with 13:24 left in overtime to give the Thunder a 5-4 win over Carolina Junior Hurricanes in the quarterfinals. Barksdale scored shorthanded with 2:40 left in the extra period to lead the Thunder past Arizona 5-4 during pool play.

“Winning multiple games in overtime with shorthanded goals, that just doesn’t happen,” Smith said.

Arizona led the Thunder 4-2 before a late rally. Matveev scored twice during the final two minutes of regulation, including the game-tying goal with 10 seconds left.

“These kids did everything they were asked to do,” Smith said.

The Thunder U16 squad features players from all four of the Valley’s prep hockey programs.

“I’m not sure if I’ve had a team this deep,” Smith said.

Matveev led the tournament in goals, assists and points with 7-7-14 totals. Richard was tied for second with nine points (6-3-9).

The Thunder finished the season 55-4 overall, and also won their third straight state championship.

“I knew we were going to be good,” Smith said. “It was the right year. We had the majority of second-year guys.”

Thirteen players were in their second season with the U16 squad.

The U16 team was one of two from the Thunder association to play for a national title. The U14 team finished as the national runner-up. The Vegas Junior Knights edged the Thunder 2-1 in the U14 Tier II final in Denver, Colorado on April 3. Tavian Mukaabya scored for the Thunder,

Contact Frontiersman managing editor Jeremiah Bartz at editor@frontiersman.com.