While the Idaho Jr. Steelheads and El Paso Rhinos are trying to dethrone the defending Junior A Tier III Champion St. Louis Jr. Blues and bring home the 2011 National Championship to the WSHL, two teams of All-Stars from the remaining WSHL league teams are also competing in Rochester, Minnesota, against All-Star teams from the Minnesota Jr. Hockey League and the National Prospects Hockey program.
Each team will play three games, one each on April 1, 2, and 3, in a round-robin format.
WSHL All-Star Team 1, consisting of players with remaining Junior level eligibility, are coached by J. F. Picard of the Long Beach Bombers and Bryce Dale of the Fresno Monsters. Bruce Miller, general manager and coach of the San Diego Gulls, is serving as general manager.
WSHL All-Star Team 2 is comprised of veteran players whose have “aged out” of Juniors and are looking to advance their careers immediately into college or professional hockey. The veterans team is coached by Jeff Heimel of the Phoenix Polar Bears and Jeremy Law of the Texas Junior Brahmas. The general manager is Scott Allegrini of the Valencia Flyers.
The three top scorers on the Team 1 squad include forwards Don Coyle of the Fresno Monsters (30 goals, 33 assists, 63 points), Bobby Watson from the Tulsa Rampage (14-46-60), and Ryan Gauthier of the Boulder Jr. Bison (20-35-55).
Other forwards on the Team 1 roster are Rob Kolander from Fresno (27-27-54), Nick O’Donnell of the Texas Jr. Brahmas (24-27-51), Vinny Eck of the Phoenix Polar Bears (23-26-49), Dylan Meier of Boulder (15-25-40), Jarryd Ramborger of the San Diego Gulls (15-16-31), Joe Francis of the Long Beach Bombers (13-11-24), Sean Heidrick from Tulsa (11-11-22 in 13 games), Jonathan Sdao of Boulder (6-8-14 in 13 games), and Zach Paisley of Valencia (3-5-8 in 8 games).
The eight defensemen on the Team 1 roster include Roman Li and Matt Day of Long Beach, Jordan Gnatowsky of Texas, Matt Boente of Tulsa, Andrew Hefter of Boulder, Cam Maceau of the Arizona RedHawks, Cassidy April of San Diego, and Alex Descheneaux of Valencia.
Anchoring the Team 1 defense are goaltenders Marcus Harbison of Fresno (2.29 GAA in 43 games) and Derek Willms of Phoenix (2.33 GAA in 12 games).
For the more veteran Team 2 All-Stars, a pair of 63-point scorers lead the attack — Shane Khalaf of Tulsa (33-30-63) and Kevin O’Donnell of Texas (31-32-63). Daniel Turgeon of Boulder follows closely with 25-34-59.
Included in the roster of forwards are Mike Dillon of Phoenix (25-17-42), Jeremy Rolf of Boulder (18-22-40), Grey Edwards of San Diego (16-22-38), Ryan Pittman of Texas (20-14-34), Gavin Hohl of Phoenix (12-22-34 in 18 games), Smbat Defterderian of Valencia (18-12-30), Jeff Lundberg of Tulsa and the Bakersfield Jr. Condors (11-16-27), Max Meints of Boulder (10-8-18), and Marcus Esparza of Arizona (10-3-13 in 16 games).
Team 2 Defenseman Jamison Wicks is the highest scoring blueliner on either All-Star squad. The Boulder player scored 46 points on 18 goals and 28 assists.
Rounding out the defense corps are Wicks’ Bison teammates Andris Sudmalis and Nick Sutton, Gary Higgs of Boulder and Valencia, Nick Christenson and Wyatt Pressick of Phoenix, and Ryan Deitl of Texas.
Goaltenders for the Team 2 group are Casey O’Connor of Phoenix (3.17 GAA in 35 games) and Salvatore Tecci of Bakersfield (3.98 GAA in 10 games).
All of the All-Star players will appreciate the extra exposure to college and pro scouts they will get from competing in the “Best of the Rest” part of the National Tournament.
Submitted by Dick Dorfman – Idaho Jr. Steelheads Play-By-Play – (208) 514-5419