The Central Division Champion West Bend Power is heading to the Fraser Cup Tournament for the second time in franchise history. The Power made their first appearance last season after winning the Central Division playoff championship. The Power Fraser Cup run is sponsored by Lynch Buick GMC of West Bend.
The five divisional playoff champions and one wild card advanced to the NA3HL Fraser Cup Championship Tournament, where they will play a two-game round-robin format followed by a semi-final and a championship game at the St. Peters Rec-Plex in St. Peters, MO from March 26-30.
The teams that advanced and will be playing in St. Louis include the Helena Bighorns of the Frontier Division (regular season 41-4-1-1), the Granite City Lumberjacks of the West Division (regular season 35-7-3-2), the Binghamton Buzz of the East Division (regular season 38-9-1-0), the Louisiana Drillers, champions of the South Division (regular season 40-3-3-1) and wild card New Mexico Ice Wolves of the South Division (regular season 37-6-2-2).
A round-robin format with two pools will be implemented, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the Semi-Finals, where they will then cross over to play the other top two teams from the other pool. The winners of the Semi-Finals will advance to the Fraser Cup Championship Game.
The Power is the number one seed and will start round-robin play on Wednesday, March 26 against the Helena Bighorns, the #4 seed at 4:00 pm. Game two of the round robin will be Thursday, March 27 against the #6 seed New Mexico Ice Wolves at 4:00pm. The Power will not play on Friday, March 28. If the Power advances, Semifinals will be Saturday, March 29. Pool A first place will play Pool B second place at 4:00pm. Pool B first place will face Pool A second place at 7:30pm. Winners of the semi-final advance to the Championship game Sunday at 4:00pm.
Brody Josselyn led the Power in scoring in the playoffs with 4 goals and one assist for 5 points, including an overtime winner. Andrew Browe and Jackson Hoem each tallied 4 points in post-season play to date. Regular season scoring leaders for the Power include Andrew Browe with 68 points (in total with points from Butte Irish), Jackson Hoem (54 points). Teagan Scheurer (38 points), Mike Sobaski (34 points), Jace Fitzgerald (34 points) and Lucca Weinkauf (33 points). The Power will look to veteran goaltender and captain Adam Prokop to lead this team in St. Louis. Prokop finished the regular season with a 1.580 GAA and .9381 SV %.
The Power wants to carry their winning momentum into the Fraser Cup, as they have won 10 of their 11 last games, dating back to February, finishing the regular season on a 6-game winning streak. The Power then swept the Wisconsin Woodsmen in round one of the playoffs before winning the Central Division playoff championship, taking 2 of 3 games against the Rochester Grizzlies to punch their ticket to St. Lous,
“We’re looking forward to another trip to the Fraser Cup. The opportunity in front of our team doesn’t go unnoticed. We will have to be at the top of our game physically and mentally as we will be playing top end competition without a doubt,” said Power head coach Jason Woods,
All games will be broadcast on NA TV.
