41 Lumber wins Pee Wee B state title

By Brian Kalisher –

The state title madness continues and more victors will be crowned throughout the month of March.

41 Lumber from the Dickson Amateur Hockey Association in the Upper Peninsula defeated the Bay Country Blizzard 6-4 for the Pee Wee B state title in Fraser on March 4.

A hat trick from Peter Ropiak and a pair from Brandon Spindlow led the team to victory.

“Our boys, they worked hard and that’s really what it was,” assistant coach Lori Jacobson said.

When it came time to pick the MVP, the coaching staff had a hard time choosing just one player, so every kid on the team was named most valuable player instead.

“After the game when [the head coach] was supposed to pick MVP, he looked at me and said ‘well, what do you think?” Jacobson said.  “I already knew.”

Of course, all the credit goes to the players on the ice for their effort in winning the state title.  But according to Jacobson, their bench boss deserves a lot of credit for the way he coaches his team.

“He’s a really good coach, he figures out which kid needs which kind of coaching,” Jacobson said.  “Whether it’s the holler-at-you, the talk to you nicely, the calm encouragement, he knows how to play the right buttons.”

DAHA 41 Lumber controlled early, as they came out to a 3-0 first period lead.  However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the kids.

“It got feisty a couple times,” Jacobson said.  “I think our kids lost a little bit of composure because, to be honest, other than a couple games during the season when they were off, the closest scores were maybe four to five goal scores.  Most of them were like seven or eight goal differentials.

“In fact, in our district play, our first game we knew we were playing a very weak team and we were up 8-0 after the first period.  Our coach just said ‘no more goals.”

Each win leading up to the championship was won in decisive fashion, winning their first two tournament games by 10-goal margins.  They parlayed their early momentum into their fifth win in tournament play and a chance to call themselves state champs.

“They were pumped, the smart thing they did all weekend was they looked at it one game at a time,” Jacobson said.