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Team CC hosts state tournament in Marquette

Calumet's Gabe Coppo (13) looks on as teammate Brent Loukus (4) shoots the puck with Houghton's Taavi Rajala and Hancock's Bryce Randell setting a screen in front of Calumet goaltender Nick Voelker during a Team Copper Country practice Wednesday. (Daver Karnosky/Daily Mining Gazette)

MARQUETTE — With as much high school-aged talent in the local area, one question that almost always gets asked is if they took all the top players from each school how good would they be?

With the formation of Team Copper Country 18U Tier 2, those who follow hockey in the area have an answer for that question: they are very good.

Team CC, the defending national champions, return to action this weekend as the top-ranked team in the country with a record of 18-1-2, and will host a tournament in Marquette while looking for a title that has proved elusive for the program throughout its history: a state title.

It is a fact that is not lost on head coach Micah Stipech.

“In order to be successful in this tournament, we have to be willing to sacrifice,” said Stipech. “This has proven difficult for us. It’s supposed to be hard. That’s the way we want it.”

With a roster made up primarily of players from Houghton, Hancock and Calumet, three of the top programs in the MHSAA’s D3, on paper, Team CC is a very deep club. The team features the likes of Houghton’s Dawson McKay, Hancock’s Alex Nordstrom and Dawson Kero, and Calumet’s Brent Loukus. However, given that it requires five games over the course of three days to win the tournament, the team will need the full complement of their roster to be successful.

“Fatigue is a real issue,” said Stipech. “I’m really concerned about fatigue. We have four lines this, part of that is for tournaments like this.”

With the tournament taking place just one week after the Bulldogs’ loss in the state semifinal against Detroit Country Day, Stipech and his staff have the monumental task of bringing together 20 players who have spent the last three months on five different high school teams and get them to play like a team with just two practices.

Fortunately for Team CC, they had the fall together and so it has become more about getting familiar again with old friends, rather than adjust to new teammates.

“We are all pretty good friends in the locker room,” said Loukus. “You don’t always forget the emotion, but once you get on the ice, there’s no grudges against anyone.”

For those players who were just downstate last weekend with the Bulldogs, Nordstrom, Kero, Teddy Perrault, Bryce Randell, and Colton Salani, there is a feeling of wanting to come away from this season with at least one state title, even if it isn’t the one they wanted last weekend.

“We had a tough weekend last weekend, but we get another chance at a state championship this weekend,” said Nordstrom. “It’s tough, but we have regroup here with the guys, get our chemistry back together and give it our all.”

For the rest of the group, the players have been off for as long as two weeks, which will make things difficult. Players like McKay made sure to find ice to continue to work through things while they prepared for this week.

“I feel good coming back into it,” said McKay. “I was skating after we lost. Coming back into it (with these guys), I feel like we jumped right back in where we left off in the fall. I think we are going to be ready to go.”

Team CC comes into this weekend more healthy than in years past, but that does make things easy, considering they down one key forward, Teddy Randell, who made his way to Texas to join a junior team after the high school season ended. Randell will be missed, as he was the MVP of the national tournament last April.

With such a key piece out, Team CC will turn to skaters such as Calumet’s Sam Erkkila, Kingsford’s Dante Fortner, and Marquette’s Joe Phillips to pick up some of the slack.

Team CC plays a puck-possession game, so players such as Perrault, Houghton’s Kevin Bostwick and Brendan Erickson, and Kingsford’s Nick Murvich will also come in handy as all five can push the pace of the game while Calumet’s Josh Vandenburg and Kingsford’s Max Curtis can provide a physical presence.

Kero will likely split duties with Calumet’s Nick Voelker, and with both having spent two seasons or more as starters for their respective high schools, Stipech can count on each of them to backstop the team.

Team CC will open the tournament against the Kensington Valley Raiders, a team that has gone 36-5-4 on the season, tonight at 7 p.m at Lakeview Arena. The Raiders are coached by former Detroit Red Wings forward Joe Kocur, whose son plays goal on the team.

On Saturday, Team CC will face Lansing Spartans (Split) at 10 a.m. and then the Lansing Spartans at 6 p.m.

Should they make it to the semifinals, they will play at either 8 or 8:30 a.m. Sunday. The championship game will follow at 2:30 p.m.

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