1999 NARCh Finals Results

It was set for an unbelievable 2 weeks of the Nations top Roller Hockey teams competing for bragging rights and the bueatiful NARCh medals. This year the finals were to be held at the Cooler, the same site as last years finals, from July 31- August 12. While in Atlanta the best place to be was the air conditioned Cooler, if you walked out side you were liable to faint.

Here are the Results of the Platinum Atoms - NARCh Pro

Atom

In the Atom Division Final, Atom Platinum Final, the Irvine Swarm buzzed all around the Mission OC Blades for most of the game, and flew to a quick 4-1 lead by halftime. The OC Blades came back in hard in the second half and made it 4-2 with about seven minutes left in the game, but a quick counterattack by the Swarm put Irvine's three-goal cushion back on the scoreboard. It looked like all was lost when the Blades called time out with 2:04 left in game, but with 17 seconds left, Matthew Leitner scored unassisted to bring the Blades within two, and another OC Blades goal with 8 seconds left made it a one-goal game. But time runs out on the Blades' comeback, and the Swarm were crowned champions. The Blades accepted Silver, and the CCM Hosers, bronze. (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)

Mite

Amazing, but true, this was the OC Blades only First place finish this year at the finals as they overpowered Team Mission 3-2.

Squirt

In the Squirt Division Final, Mission Honeybaked and the Biltrite Brea Bulldogs played a game largely determined by excellent goaltending. Honeybaked scored at 7:33 of the first half to take a 1-0 lead into the second half. A nice individual play by Pat Davis put Honeybaked up by two, 2-0, and that energized the Bulldogs, who buzzed around Mission net, but couldn't put it in.

With 20 seconds left in the game, Brea pulled its goalie, and scored with just two seconds left in the game. It was too little too late, and Mission player fell on the puck at the faceoff dot as time expired.

The Mission OC Blades took the Bronze Medal.   (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)

PeeWee

Mission HoneyBaked, baked the Mission OC Blades letting all the other peewee teams know that they are in charge in 99. It is there second big win of the year, there first was at the WinterNationals in Las Vegas this past January.

Bantam

In the Bantam Division Final, a game between Team Sure-Grip and the Mission Empire Snipers, Brett Sterling faked a shot, froze the lone defender, then made two great dekes and tucked a backhander past the Snipers’ goalie for a 1-0 SureGrip lead. The goal came with Sterling's teammate Gabe Gauthier in the penalty box.

The Snipers tied it up midway through the first half, 1-1, then Michael Cianfrani made a brilliant assist on a goal that put the Snipers up, 2-1. About 10 seconds later, with 18 seconds to go in the half, the Snipers scored again, making it 3-1.

In the second half, Sure-Grip battled back to tie it up with two goals by Ryan Holloway, both of which were assisted by Brandon Diffey. Holloway's second goal came with 2:01 remaining. But with just 1:20 left in the game, Cianfrani used a Sure-Grip defenseman as a screen, then shot 'tweeners to make it 4-3 in favor of the Snipers.

A minute and 18 seconds later, Cianfrani scored on a breakaway to put the game out of reach, and the Snipers won, 5-3. Sure-Grip had to accept Silver; Bronze went to the Detroit Mission Stars.   (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)

Junior

In the championship game, the Toronto Tigers proved themselves kings of the NARCh jungle by defeating their York neighbors, the Thoroughblades, 7-4.

Division 1

In Division 1 Championship, Team Tour raced out to a 3-0 halftime lead, but the Empire Snipers came back to tie it at 3-3 early in the second half. Tour then scored, then the Snipers, and then Tour once more, and it was 5-4 in favor of Tour. With 5:15 to go, Mission took an interference penalty, and Team Tour capitalized almost immediately, going up 6-4 with 4:35 to go. With two minutes even left in the game, Mike Enright scored on a beautiful tip-in to bring the Snipers within one, and 19 seconds later, the Snipers got yet another goal, notching it up at 6-6. At the buzzer ending regulation, the Snipers hit the crossbar!

Three minutes into the 12-minute sudden-death overtime, Tommy Prate scored the Gold-Medal winning goal for the Mission Empire Snipers. Team Tour's goalie made a big save, but lost his stick in the process, and before he could get set up again in net, the Snipers passed from behind to the net to the slot where Prate stood waiting.  (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)

NARCh PRO

The Mudcats scored first, Franklin countered, Tour went up 2-1 and Team Franklin tied it up at the half, 2-2.

Team Franklin scored five straight goals to put the game out of reach in the second half, and the Mudcats scored one goal as the game was winding down.

Eric Weischselbaumer (sorry about the spelling, if wrong, Eric...) was the star of the game for Team Franklin, scoring a hat trick and at least two assists.

With the victory, Team Franklin continued its NARCh dominance, winning its third-consecutive Pro Division at NARCh -- Atlanta 1998, Winternationals '99 and now Atlanta '99.

Jim Jensen of Mission was named Top Goalie, and Taj Melson of Team Franklin was Top Scorer.  (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)

Womens

In the Women's Division Final, the Mission Betties overcame a 1-0 deficit after Andria Hunter scored for the Franklin Typhoon, scoring three unanswered goals in the first half to take a 3-1 lead. There was no scoring in the second half, though the entire game was a closely fought battle, with many chances to score for both teams.  (Richard Graham, InlineHockeyCentral.com)