This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Salt Lake City is about to play host for a whole lot of hockey.
This week, the nation's top high school hockey programs will be streaming to Utah to participate in the 2012 National Championships. Between Wednesday and Sunday, Salt Lake Sports Complex will host a whirlwind schedule of 43 hockey games until a champ is crowned.
Two of Utah's best squads, Judge Memorial and Bingham, will compete in the tournament. The Bulldogs went undefeated in the playoffs and won the state championship. The Miners finished as state runner-up for the second year in a row.
But if history is a guide, neither of them has much of a chance to come out on top. No Utah team has yet won a game in the first two years of the tournament.
More than anything, Judge and Bingham hope to compete.
"We're not going to win this tournament — we know that," Miners coach Brett Blackburn said. "When we went last year to Chicago, it was an extremely challenging time. It was a new experience for a lot of us."
In last year's event, Bingham scored 15 goals but allowed 41 in three defeats. The Miners fared better than fellow Utah invitee Skyline, which managed only two goals in its losses.
It's a telling sign of the talent gap between Utah's best and the top-tier programs in the country. Judge and Bingham may have a few comparable players, but they don't have the depth of many other schools that will compete.
"It's somewhat a numbers game, because more kids in some of those places are achieving that higher level," Bulldogs coach Tony Musci says. "Our top line can match just about anyone in the country, but after that it drops off."
Although hockey is not a sanctioned sport in Utah, the Utah High School Hockey club league has been around for 37 years. The league now boasts 24 teams — many of those programs also have junior varsity squads — but only a handful of the players have travel hockey experience.
But UHSH president Pete Bratsos, who helped set up Salt Lake City's bid for the national championships, says he hopes the event can demonstrate that Utah is a good environment for hockey. He also believes hosting such a large-scale tournament can inspire others to jump into the sport.
"We saw a big spike in our numbers after the 2002 Olympics, because it gave us a big profile for our sport," Bratsos says. "We've given out nearly 1,000 free tournament passes to kids from around the area because we want them to get exposed to hockey and boost the awareness."
For Judge and Bingham, it would be great to get big crowds. But more than draw attention, they want to win.
The Bulldogs scrimmaged against a travel team to get a glimpse of how quick some of the teams they'll be playing are. They bring some very strong players to the ice: Andrew Bergquist, Sam Taylor and Wilson Lamb all were high-powered scorers this season, and Musci thinks they'll be able to squeeze in a few goals.
The rest of the plan? Hang on to whatever lead Judge can get.
"It's going to be different than the high school games we played this year, so we want to keep things in front of us and not be intimidated," he says. "We're going to try and get more kids time and experience, and try to demonstrate Utah hockey is vital and vibrant."
Twitter: @kylegoon —
USA High School Hockey National Championships
P Wednesday through Sunday at Salt Lake Sports Complex
Local team schedule
Judge Memorial
Wednesday, 2:45 p.m. • Brophy Broncos (Ariz.)
Thursday, 3:15 p.m. • Washington Hornets (Wash.)
Friday, 7:15 p.m. • Pinnacle Pioneers (Ariz.)
Bingham
Wednesday, 7:15 p.m. • Pinnacle Pioneers (Ariz.)
Thursday, 5:30 p.m. • Brophy Broncos (Ariz.)
Friday, 2:45 p.m. • Washington Hornets (Wash.)