PIRANHAS WIN USA HOCKEY NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!

May 18, 2008

The Minneapolis Piranhas finished out a season of historical proportions by winning the 2008 USA Hockey National Championship in Minneapolis this weekend. The trip to Nationals was the first in franchise history, and they made the most of it, culminating in a 5-3 victory over the two-time defending champion TBD team from Michigan. The championship game was stopped with under a minute to go due to a brawl; clearly this was a Michigan team that wasn't used to losing. During the weekend the team also survived a rematch of the Twin Cities championship game with the Eden Prairie Jesters, dozens of brats, a wicked dust-storm and all the free Coors EG they could handle.

The road to the championship, however, wasn't easy. Early in the season the team lost two of it's defensemen to injury and fired it's coach again (the IBM zSeries 990 Mainframe). However, a series of team-building events (most notably a pickup-football game victory over the Minnesota Gophers football team and the pummeling of Carleton College men's hockey team) brought the season back from the brink of disaster. The team will look to defend it's title starting again in October. In the meantime, much of the team will play in the AHA summer league as the two-time defending champion Golden Pike(s).