By Bruce Karnick

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The Hastings Hockey Association had three Bantam (15u) teams this year, Bantam A, B and C. The C team had not only an amazing regular season, going 33-6-2 overall, but they had a very impressive district season, finishing in first place at150-1 in District Eight.

They also won the Blaine tournament, placed third at the Hastings tournament, second at Chippewa Falls and won the championship at Districts with a 4-0 record. The most impressive stat is their plus/minus for goals against where they outscored their opponents by 95 goals.

“The goal is to have a positive plus minus, meaning you score more goals than you have scored against you,” explained head coach Chad Stewart. “In general, if you do that, you're going to win more games than you lose. The A Bantams, they were a plus one, So, they had scored one more goal than they had against them all year. And they were the only other team out of the boys’ side. The C Bantams at one point they had a 110 positive- point-margin, and they finished the season plus-95.”

“I'd love to tell you that I was some genius and made this all happen. These kids, they just gelled together, and they did a great job. It's really what made it made it unique. I kept telling the parents at the end of year party, take your pictures of these trophies and these kids because I played hockey 30 years and I've never been part of a team like that,” added Stewart.

According to Stewart, he believes this C team could have, and probably should have played at the B level and Hastings could have had two B teams for the year, but coaches do not have a crystal ball to predict that in October.

Congratulations to the coaches and players on a stellar season and for winning the district championship!

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