Away we go! Silver Cup quest begins today

The time has arrived and the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) Silver Cup Championship Tournament begins today.

Game 1: #1 St. Louis Jr. Blues vs. #6 Peoria Mustangs, 5pm (cst)

What you need to know:  St. Louis was a perfect 8-0 in the regular season against Peoria, outscoring them 41-8 in the process.  However, this is a one-game situation and Mustangs goaltender Michael Parda gives him team a chance to win in every game.  St. Louis defenseman Kyle Meeh has 10 points in the 8 wins against Peoria this season.

Game 2: #2 North Iowa Bulls vs. #5 Flint Jr. Generals, 8pm (cst)

What you need to know: If St. Louis and Peoria know a lot about one another after eight meetings in the regular season, the opposite can be said about North Iowa and Flint, who did not face one another this season.  North Iowa cruised to a three-game sweep in their Semi-Final against Minnesota, while Flint swept Three Rivers with three, one goal wins.  Flint goaltender Anders Franke will have to play well against the Bulls, who had the NA3HL’s #1 offense during the regular season as they averaged more than six goals per game. 

All event information including: schedule, ticket information, scouting information, venue, hotels, car rentals and more can be found on the NA3HL Silver Cup website at: http://cup.na3hl.com/

For those that can’t make it to the event, all Silver Cup Tournament games will be broadcast live on FASTHockey.

The teams have been placed in two, three-team pools. Teams will be seeded according to their finish in the NA3HL regular season standings. A round-robin format will be used, with the teams playing the other two teams within their pool. The top team in each pool after round robin competition will advance on to play for the Championship. The bottom four teams at the conclusion of round robin play will be eliminated from the tournament. In the event of a tie after round-robin play, a tiebreaking procedure adopted in the rules and regulations shall be used to break the tie.

Pool A: #1 St. Louis Jr. Blues, #3 Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks, #6 Peoria Mustangs

Pool B: #2 North Iowa Bulls, #4 Granite City Lumberjacks, #5 Flint Jr. Generals

2013 Silver Cup Schedule

Wed, March 27: St. Louis vs. Peoria, 5:00pm; North Iowa vs. Flint, 8:00pm

Thu, March 28: Cleveland vs. Peoria, 2:00pm; Granite City vs. Flint, 5:00pm

Fri, March 29: St. Louis vs. Cleveland, 3:00pm; North Iowa vs. Granite City, 6:00pm

Sat, March 30: Championship, Pool A winner vs. Pool B winner. 1:00pm

The winner of the NA3HL Silver Cup will then advance to play in the USA Hockey Tier III Junior National Championship being held in Rochester, Minnesota from April 4-8.