Sometimes it takes a little adversity to bring out the best in a hockey team.

In the case of the 02 Bantam AA team, that adversity served as a strong motivating factor in capturing the Boise Fall Face Off Tournament October 14-16 by defeating the Boise Jr. Steelheads 4-1 in the championship game.

“We played two really outstanding games against two really good teams on Sunday,” said Head Coach John Damyanovich, referring to the tournament’s semifinal game against the Kent Valley Selects and the championship games against the host Boise Jr. Steelheads.  “I was really proud of the way our team responded after Saturday’s Montana game.”

Needing just a win or tie in the final round-robin game against Montana to move into Sunday’s semifinals, the Jr. Sun Devils played a game that Damyanovich described as “an extremely disappointing effort” en route to a 6-3 loss.

“We couldn’t pass, we couldn’t defend, we couldn’t shoot, we just kept making mistake after mistake after mistake,” added Damyanovich.  “We were outhustled and outplayed from the opening faceoff.  That game was easily our worst performance of the year.”

Because of the loss, the Sun Devils had to wait until later that evening to see if they would even make the semifinals.

“Fortunately, the Hockey Gods smiled favorably on us in the round robin’s final two games and we squeaked in as the number four seed,” said Damyanovich.

With new life and a chance to redeem themselves, the Jr. Sun Devils drew the undefeated and top-seeded Kent Valley Selects in the first semifinal game.  Jumping out to a 2-0 first-period lead, the Devils dominated play throughout and won 7-0.

“Complete 180 degree turnaround from Saturday’s game against Montana,” said Damyanovich.  “That was one of the most impressive performances I’ve had the pleasure of coaching.  We controlled every aspect of that game — I was extremely pleased with our effort for 42 minutes and how we came back together as a team less than 24 hours after the Montana game.”

Leading the scoring in the 7-0 victory was forward Jake Smaw with a hat trick while forward Austin Gloyd added two goals.  Cooper May and Ben Zucker each chipped in with a goal while Carter Newlin led all Jr. Sun Devils in the assist column with two.  Goaltender Tristan Konieczny stopped 15 shots to secure the shutout win.

In the championship game, the Jr. Sun Devils fell behind 1-0 after the first period before goals by Jaidin Hicke and May in the second period and Brent Scott and Logan Lee in the third period gave the Devils a 4-1 championship win.  Nic DelliBovi set up two of the Jr. Sun Devils four goals and Konieczny made 26 saves to secure the championship win.

“Our final game against Boise was another impressive effort by the team,” said Damyanovich.  “Boise is a really good team.  They played big and physical and even though we fell behind 1-0, we matched their intensity throughout the first half of the game.  Once we got the lead, we played really smart in our defensive end and Tristan made some nice saves at big moments to protect the lead.  We took advantage of a few offensive opportunities in the third period to increase a one-goal lead to a three-goal lead to give us some breathing room at the end.

“As a coach, you always wonder how your team is going to react when things don’t go your way, especially when they are effort related,” said Damyanovich.  “I’m very proud of how our team responded in Boise.  We may have sneaked into the semifinals, but we left little doubt on Sunday how strong our team can be when we play as a team.”