Photo submitted The Harter Auto Supply 19U Tier III girls hockey team finished second at the state tournament on the weekend of March 8-10 at the Patterson Ice Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The team includes Nadia Meneguzzo, Cadence Anderson, Chloe Mikus, Annika Haugland, Jaysa Wilks, Abagail Rozman, Chloe Serafin, Tessa Meneguzzo, Sophia Blake, Kylie Garrow, Maria Kallenbach, Audrie Wakeham, and Baylie Bourdeau. Also pictured are head coach Jason Meneguzzo, and assistant coaches Doug Bourdeau, Madison Labyak, and Al Wakeham.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Coach Jason Meneguzzo has been leading girls hockey teams for a few years now. However, he had not had a squad like the Harter Auto Supply 19U Tier III team he coached this season, which came within a game of the state title if not for a 3-1 loss to the Livonia Knights in the championship game on Sunday evening at the Patterson Ice Center..

“I’ve been coaching for, I don’t know, five years now, four years, five years,” he said. “It’s the first year that we’ve actually, last year we were pretty competitive, too, but we were competitive enough this year that we almost made it all the way.”

Jason felt that a big difference between this season and previous years was the fact that there were enough girls playing that the Copper Country Junior Hockey Association (CCJHA) could field a team at the 19U level, and another, Garrow Accounting, at the 14U level.

“I think it’s just a combination of the girls maturing,” he said. “One of the biggest things is probably we were able to have two teams this year, a 19U and a 14U team, which made us more competitive in our divisions.”

Jason also felt that having Brian Rantanen and Brett Hillstrom involved with the 14U team helped as well.

“Both Brian and Brett are great coaches,” he said. “We wouldn’t have been able to be as successful as we were without either of them.”

While Harter Auto Supply struggled through the first half in terms of success, they found a bit of a groove in the second half of the season leading into the state tournament.

“I think, this year, we were able to play a lot more competitive teams than us,” said Jason. “At times, we played Tier II teams and we’re a Tier III. We went over to Duluth (Minnesota) and played some travel teams out of there.

“Playing those stronger teams really amplified (things), where we could see where our weaknesses were. Then we went back home and worked on our weaknesses where we knew that they were, and strengthened it, and were able to capitalize on that, and get back and make a good run for the playoffs.”

Unlike the 14U team, which struggled to schedule games due to teams not wanting to make the trek to the Copper Country, Harter Auto Supply’s schedule was somewhat more balanced, as Jason has been crafting relationships with teams for multiple years, so they were able to get teams from Grand Rapids and Kalkaska to come north for games.

“We don’t play a lot of local teams,” he said. “I mean, the shortest run that we’ve traveled to play was probably Duluth, and that was four and a half hours. Otherwise, we’re traveling down to Detroit or Grand Rapids, Kalkaska. We try to get as many of those girls teams to play as possible, and then we fill in with the local boys, just so we’re not out of town every weekend.”

Harter Auto Supply saw the Knights in round robin play first on Saturday night, and lost 1-0 to them before facing them again in the championship game.

“I mean, weren’t far off,” Jason said. “In the championship game, we only lost 3-1, but we were only down by one when we played that team (earlier). We played that team earlier in the (tournament) and were down by one. They were an older team.”

While Harter Auto Supply competed as a 19U team, the reality was that the team was actually younger than that, Jason said.

“We’re a 19 U team,” he said. “But, the only reason we’re 19U is because my daughter (Nadia) is the goalie. She’s 17. All the rest of the girls on the team are 14 to 16.

“So our team is a lot younger than the teams that we played.”

That age gap translates to older teams having more polished players, which makes how his team finished even more exciting for Jason.

“They’re a lot more mature,” he said. “They have more skill level. So, we were pretty happy to see how far we went.”

Harter Auto Supply opened the tournament with Downriver United, whom they beat, 5-0, on Friday, March 8. They followed that up with a 2-2 tie against the Griffins Girls, the defending state champions, late Saturday morning. After losing to the Knights, 1-0, Saturday night, they advanced to the semifinals thanks to their large win over Downriver.

In the semis, they faced the Detroit Bulldogs, and they skated away with a 7-0 victory, setting the stage for a rematch with the Knights in the title game.

Like the 14U team, Harter Auto Supply was made up of players from multiple hockey associations, the CCJHA, the Calumet Hockey Association, and the Iron River Hockey Association. Nadia Meneguzzo served as the team captain. In front of her were Cadence Anderson, Chloe Mikus, Annika Haugland, Jaysa Wilks, Abagail Rozman, Chloe Serafin, Tessa Meneguzzo, Sophia Blake, Kylie Garrow, Maria Kallenbach, Audrie Wakeham, and Baylie Bourdeau.

“All these girls were busting their butt every practice to get done as much as they can and grow,” said Jason.

Jason has already started work on next season, identifying an area of their game his group needs to improve.

“Five games for those girls is a lot,” he said. “Four games on a weekend is a lot in a regular tournament, but playing five was (even more). I feel like, if we played that game separate, alone, it might have been a different story.

“But, it is what it is. Next year we’ll do work on more conditioning throughout the year.”

When the team returned to the Copper Country, they were greeted by fire trucks and a parade through downtown Houghton, Dollar Bay, Lake Linden, and Calumet.

“I think, at first, when I talked to them about it, they weren’t real thrilled about celebrating second place,” said Jason. “But for girls hockey, as far as it took us to get to this, if it was last year or even the beginning of this year, they would kill for a second place win, a second place in the states. So, it was nice for them to see the support that everybody else had seen, and they just couldn’t see, because they had a loss.

“It was nice for the community to come out, and see that, and all the fire departments that got together and welcomed them back.”