The Colorado Thunderbirds 12U team took home the championship Sunday evening at the LA PeeWee AAA ShowCase, beating the 12U Phoenix Jr. Coyotes in the championship game 2-1 in a thrilling shootout victory. The team had round-robin wins against Dallas Stars Elite (6-3), San Jose Jr. Sharks (5-2), and the LA Jr. Kings 11U (5-0); a tie with host LA Jr. Kings 12U (2-2); and a loss to Phoenix (1-4). The T-Birds earned the two-seed berth in the Championship game against Phoenix with a 3-1-1 record in round-robin play (4-1-1 overall), outscoring their opponents by a margin of 21-12 in all tournament play.

Though hampered by an injury-and-illness-shortened bench this weekend, the T-Birds' offense boasted 12 different players with points against good defensive opposition. The goaltending tandem of Trey Hirschfield and Hank Levy, along with a team average of more than 10 blocked shots per game, backstopped the team to a 2.00 goals against average for the tournament.

"The contribution from every one of our players this weekend was outstanding, both offensively and defensively," said Zach Blom, head coach of the team. "We faced some great goaltending from some very physical, talented teams, and our boys played great team defense and created a ton of beautiful, hard-working goals, and I couldn't be prouder of their spirit and character."

In a must-win final round robin game against the 3-1 LA 11U’s, Hank Levy posted a shutout in net on the way to a 5-0 victory. In the championship game, Cole Stofflet beat an outstanding Phoenix goaltender off of a rebound from linemate Jackson Szmul in the first period, with Phoenix tying it up later that period on a rebound goal against Hirschfield, who was driven into the net on the initial play and helpless on the shot. Though outshooting the Jr. Coyotes 28-14 through regulation, the T-Birds found themselves in a tie, with a shoot out to decide the championship.

Ethan Dupree, Blake Johnson, and Cole Stofflet all scored in the best-of-three shoot out, which included two extra, sudden-death rounds. After going down a goal in the first sudden-death round, Johnson showed steel nerves and leadership to score a dazzling tying goal. Hirschfield made a show-stopping save in the fifth round before Stofflet buried on a skillful deke to win the shootout and grant the T-Birds the extra goal in the 2-1 win.

"We persevered through a lot of challenges this weekend, and our resolve and character shined through in the success we've accomplished," said Blom, who is assisted by his father, ten-year T-Bird coaching veteran Buddy Blom, and sixth-year T-Bird coach Curtis Duffus. "The boys care about and believe in each other, and they've worked hard all year in both practices and games to earn that belief. They played for each other and willed their way to the Championship, and they showed their true colors."

The 12U T-Birds will head to the Tournoi International de Pee-Wee Feb. 12-22 in Quebec City to compete in the top division of largest and longest running PeeWee hockey tournament in the world.