First Divisional Tournament is in the Books

The Carolina Sled Hockey team traveled to Charlotte, NC for their first divisional tournament of the 2022/2023 SESHL season. The team did not have the outcome that they had hoped for losing to both Queen City and the Charleston Warriors. However, it was bittersweet as it was such a huge honor to be a part of Queen City’s first-ever game.

The team is in somewhat of a rebuild after losing 3 key players from the roster from the previous season. Two players went to Queen City and one player was lost to retirement. Some players will definitely need to step up to fill those roles.

Humberto Reyna was the lone goal scorer from the weekend for Carolina Sled Hockey.

The 2022/2023 season is finally here. Carolina Sled Hockey hit the ice this past weekend with a couple of hard skating practices. With the first SESHL weekend coming up in less than a month in Charlotte, the team needs to get in all the work they can to be ready to face off against Queen city and the Charleston Warriors. The Warriors are a familiar foe over the past few seasons whereas this will be the inaugural season for Queen City when it comes to league play. But Queen City are no strangers as they will have 3 former Carolina Sled Hockey players in their lineup, (Jereme Gilbert, Brooke Powell, and Cam Gross).

In addition to participating in the South East Sled Hockey League, Carolina Sled Hockey will also be participating in the 2023 USA Hockey Disabled Festival in St. Louis.

“We are the Champions, my friend. We’ll keep on fighting till the end.”

-Queen

It seems like it has been a long time coming for the Carolina Sled Hockey team. As the 20/21 season approached the team was ready to put in the work to claim what they felt was theirs. They did not want a repeat of the 19/20 season posting a stellar record of 8-2-2, they were heavily favored to take the crown going into the playoffs. But the hockey gods had other plans, Carolina was ousted in the 1st rd by the Nashville Sled Preds.

The team was determined to take the crown this year as they worked and pushed themselves in practice after practice, all during a global pandemic mind you. All the hard work showed during the regular season as the team finished undefeated without ever allowing a single goal. I guess goalie Odell Lambeth deserves a little credit for that. When the playoffs came around this year, the team was ready and took nothing for granted. The championship game had Carolina facing off against last season’s champs, The Charleston Warriors. It was a constant back and forth battle between the two goalies as neither wanted to give an inch. That is until late in the third when Gary Smith had enough and decided it was time to put this game to bed and ripped a shot from the left circle and hit the back of the net. The team went crazy. With just a few minutes left in the game, we knew we had to be a defensive fortress as the Warriors were giving us everything they had. It was a good fight but this time the day belonged to Carolina and the cup was coming home!