Mike Becker of the KMC Eagles, center, is surrounded by teammates after scoring the opening goal in his team's 6-2 win against the Geilenkirchen Flyers in the title game of the U.S. Forces Ice Hockey Championship tournament in Garmisch, Germany, on Saturday. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
Mike Becker of the KMC Eagles, center, is surrounded by teammates after scoring the opening goal in his team's 6-2 win against the Geilenkirchen Flyers in the title game of the U.S. Forces Ice Hockey Championship tournament in Garmisch, Germany, on Saturday. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
KMC goalie Josh Taylor keeps his eye on the puck as a member of the Geilenkirchen Flyers prepares to launch a shot. Taylor held the Flyers to two goals as the KMC Eagles won the title game of the U.S. Forces Ice Hockey Championship, 6-2, in Garmisch, Germany, on Saturday. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
Mick Mineni, left, and Matt Donofrio, both members of the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, took rest-and recuperation leave from Afghanistan to make the trip to Garmisch, Germany, to play in the U.S. Forces Ice Hockey Championship tournament. The two helped lead the Bayern Rangers to a third-place finish. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
GARMISCH, Germany — The KMC Eagles started fast and didn’t look back as they grabbed their third-straight U.S. Forces Ice Hockey Championship tournament title with a 6-2 win in Saturday’s title game at Garmisch’s Olympic Stadium.
Mike Becker scored early in the first period to get the Eagles rolling against the Flyers — a Canadian team out of Geilenkirchen and the lone non-American team in the competition.
“I just tried to get my stick on the puck. I got a little lucky,” said Becker, an airman first class with the 721 Air Postal Service at Ramstein Air Base.
The Eagles added goals by Ryan Allan and Dillon Parsons for a 3-1 lead at the end of the first period and Geilenkirchen was never able to catch up.
Tough defense dominated long stretches of the game, which featured hard hitting on the ice and lots of pushing and shoving as both sides btttled for position along the boards, and tempers flared on occasion. The Eagles extended their lead to 4-1 at the end of the second period, before a late flurry finished off the scoring.
Andy Venne, Nathan Quirt, and Jamie Jordan scored the final three goals for KMC.
Scott Zwiers, an Air Force captain with the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein, said the Eagles’ victory was the culmination of months of hard work. The team honed its skills in a German league, which helped them prepare for the military completion, he said.
“We have a very committed team and we know how to play with each other,” said Zwiers, the tournament MVP.
The Eagles and Flyers were the heavy favorites when this year’s 10-team round-robin tournament began on Thursday. The tournament, a wintertime tradition for the past 19 years, also included the Bitburg Bears, SHAPE Shields, Stuttgart Mustangs, Aviano Dragons, Bayern Rangers from the Vilseck area, Kaiserslautern Adlers, Ansbach Choppers, and the Baden Bruins from the Heidelberg area.
“It’s filling a need,”said Thomas Burkett, a USAFE sports program manager who has been running the event since the start. “When we started 19 years ago, I didn’t think it would grow like this. I didn’t think we had that many hockey players.”
In the early days, it was just a couple of teams that took part, but interest has continued to grow despite a steady drawdown in the number of troops overseas, he said.
The Rangers finished third in the tournament, beating the Bruins, 2-1, in overtime. Helping lead the way for the Rangers were two 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment soldiers who took their rest-and-recuperation leave from Afghanistan to play in the tournament.
“We felt like we had unfinished business here,” said Mick Mineni, referring to the team’s fourth-place finish last year. Mineni, a major, and Matt Donofrio, a captain, will be returning to their unit in Afghanistan next week.
“It’s good to come back with a victory,” Mineni said.
All-tournament teamScott Zwiers, Mark Aube, Adam Nyitray and Dillon Parsons, Kaiserslautern Eagles; Chris Sheehan and Mike Hamilton, Bayern Rangers; Francois Boutet, the Flyers; Jeremy Larkin and Nick Young, Ansbach Choppers; Daniel Guigue, SHAPE Shields.
