Puck to drop for 27th annual Casey Cup
A Colorado native, Aaron Quick didn’t know much about Terry Casey when he first started coaching the Great Falls Americans high school team a year ago.
“The kids knew more about Terry Casey than I did,” Quick said. “A majority of the kids are returners, and they have a very good idea of what he meant to hockey in this town.”
Quick, the second-year head coach who is also in the Air Force, quickly learned about Casey’s lasting impact on the Great Falls community.
The 27th annual Casey Cup, which commences Friday and runs through Sunday at the Great Falls IcePlex, is held in honor of the late great Casey.
The former Great Falls native whose talents on the ice were unmistakable and unparalleled, Casey skated for the Great Falls Americans men’s team back in the early 1960s and went on to an All-American career at the University of North Dakota, where his jersey currently hangs in the rafters.
Named the captain for the 1968 United States Olympic team, Casey never made it to Grenoble, France, for competition after he and two friends were tragically killed in a car crash on their way to a softball tournament in Plentywood in the summer of 1967.
Tickets can be purchased for the entire tournament or for one game apiece. Adults can buy a weekend pass for $10, and a family of four can do the same for $20. Single-game tickets for adults are $5, students with an ID can enter for $1 and ages 6 and younger get in for free.
Last season, the tournament featured 16 teams in two separate divisions. This year, the event will be made up of just five Midget-level hockey squads.
New Central Alberta Hockey League rules – the amount of tournaments they could play in and the date in which they had to announce by – prevented the majority of the regular Canadian teams from participating in this year’s Casey Cup.
Teams from Calgary, Meridian, Idaho, Missoula, Sidney and Great Falls will compete in the round-robin format starting Friday. Gary and Sharey Morris and Tony Krattiger are all helping put on the event this week as co-tournament coordinators.
“A lot of those kids don’t know the meaning behind it, but a lot of their parents do,” Krattiger said of the Casey Cup.
Calgary is the defending AA division champions from 2014, while Meridian was the runner-up. Missoula currently sits in first place in the Montana Amateur Hockey Association High School League.
The Great Falls Americans U18 team – not to be confused with the Americans Junior A team coached by Jeff Heimel – has won its past eight contests and boasts a record of 10-8 despite an incredibly short bench. After this weekend, Great Falls will play two more games at the end of the month before the state tournament begins in Billings early next month.
“The kids always get excited for it,” Quick said of this week. “It’s a big deal for them every year. The seniors look forward to it a lot.”
Sean Morris (20 goals, 12 assists) leads the team in points with 32. Braxton Lorenz (14G, 16A), Austin Folds (15G, 14A), Jamison McLain (12G, 9A), Tom Johnson (7G, 12A) and Bryce Krattiger (10G, 9A) are also key contributors. Cam McIntosh and Colton Rasmussen are the net minders. McIntosh will start between the pipes in all four games as Rasmussen has obligations elsewhere.
“They are playing really well,” Quick said. “The key to our team is giving effort the whole time. A really skilled team. We get tired pretty quickly (because of depth), so keeping up our effort even when we are tired is the key to our success in the last eight games.”
Great Falls begins play Friday at 1 in the afternoon against Calgary, then faces Sidney at 7:30. On Saturday, the Americans take on Meridian at 10 a.m. and Missoula at 6 p.m.