Bantam AA is one of the highest levels for the 14-years-and-under player group.

The Junior Wildcats, who finished their season with a 45-13-4 record, won two of three pool games on Friday and Saturday to advance as the second-place team in their American Conference.

Then on Sunday, the Legion team won in the semifinals against the pretournament favorite before falling in the finals to the same team that had defeated them on Saturday.

“We exceeded our expectations in this tournament,” Marquette head coach Jon Nebel said. “We had a very young team, nine of our 17 players are first-year players, where the other teams in the (state) tournament didn’t have any or not a whole lot.

Marquette's Nolan Bink rushes up ice near the boards with the puck during a game in late January in the Michigan Amateur Hockey Association Bantam AA/14-under district tournament held at Lakeview Arena in Marquette. (Randy Ritari photo)

“The key was just staying with it and being able to use a lot of players as many of them made good contributions. That allowed us as a significantly undersized team to compete, along with things like the kids never stopped working, a good forecheck and reading plays properly.”

Here is a rundown, game by game:

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Marquette 5, Traverse City 2

On Friday morning against the TC North Stars, the Junior Wildcats got their tournament run off to a fast start by taking a 4-0 lead early in the third period before Traverse City managed to dent the twine.

Nolan Bink scored late in each of the first two periods, his second-period tally coming on a power play. Kyle Moyer got an assist on Bink’s first goal and Brody Sheldon and Owen Potulny assisted the second one.

After establishing a 1-0 lead after one period, the Legion’s Seth Sandstrom scored about two minutes before Bink’s second goal as it was 3-0 after two. Moyer and Landon Carpenter assisted on Sandstrom’s tally.

About 3 1/2 minutes into the final period, Moyer made it 4-0 with a power play goal assisted by Carpenter and Sandstrom.

TC got its first goal about a minute and a half later, but Moyer answered with his second goal not long after the halfway point of the third. TC also scored in the late going.

Marquette’s defense kept TC from generating much firepower as Wildcats goalie McCullen Hayes was called on to make 13 saves, including just seven combined over the first two periods.

Marquette took 26 shots on goal.

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Marquette 6, Portage Lake 1

On Friday evening, Legion goalie Parker Nevenhoven made sure the host Flyers couldn’t build any momentum as he stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced as Marquette again built a big lead, this time 5-0, before PL got on the board.

Carter Beerling, Carpenter and Moyer scored for the Wildcats in the opening period, with Beerling’s tally was assisted by Jack Pond and Brody Sheldon, Carpenter’s by Potulny and Moyer’s by Carpenter.

Moyer made it back-to-back goals with the only score of the second period near the midpoint as Sheldon got another assist.

Then Sheldon made it 5-0 just over five minutes into the third with an assist going to Nolan Bink.

Not quite three minutes later, Hudson Markham scored PL’s lone goal, assisted by Jack Sayen, but Bink answered about five minutes later with the Legion’s final goal, assisted by Sandstrom.

For the second straight game, Marquette had 26 shots on goal as they came against Flyers netminder Bella Coppo.

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Flint 6, Marquette 2

On Saturday afternoon, the Junior Wildcats again got off to a fast start before the eventual state champion Junior Firebirds pulled off a big comeback.

Moyer scored a pair of unassisted goals in the game’s first six minutes, and the score remained 2-0 Marquette for more than a full period.

Then Flint scored three goals in less than seven minutes during the second half of the middle period. Lucas Leppan had a pair of power-play tallies that followed an unassisted goal by Justin Lupu.

Now leading 3-2, the Firebirds dominated the third period, outshooting the Wildcats 12-0 and bagging three more goals spaced about six minutes apart by Gavin Dopke, Parker Bendall and Hunter Christopher.

Marquette’s Hayes faced 33 shots, including at least 10 each period, and finished with 27 saves, while Flint minder Brody Neelands had to stop just 11 attempts.

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Marquette 5, Kensington Valley 3

On Sunday morning, the Wildcats built a 4-2 lead, then survived a wild goal-scoring flurry in the last minute against the Rebels, who Nebel said was the top-ranked team entering this event.

Carpenter not only notched a hat trick, but scored the only goal of the opening period a little more than 11 minutes in as his goal was assisted by Moyer and Lucas Belkowski.

Like Carpenter, Moyer would also finish the game with three points.

Kensington first tied the game, then took the lead with goals less than 4 1/2 minutes apart early in the second period off the sticks of John Peffer and Caleb Biros.

Marquette then went to work in the third. Carpenter retied it 2-2 on a goal 5:20 in with Moyer and Potulny assisting.

Then Moyer scored unassisted a little more than eight minutes later for a 3-2 lead for the Wildcats.

Any thoughts of playing a shutdown game to preserve the lead went out the window in the game’s final minute.

In a 41-second span, the teams combined for three goals, luckily for the Legion two were by them.

Carpenter completed his hat trick with 53 seconds remaining to make it 4-2, then 33 seconds later, the Rebels’ Adam Zielinski scored to make it a one-goal game again.

But eight seconds off the ensuing faceoff with 12 ticks left, Bink bumped Marquette’s advantage back to two with the game’s third unassisted goal into an empty net.

Though neither team scored on two power play chances, they had plenty of shots as Marquette’s Hayes made 32 saves and Kensington’s Shaun Story had 27 stops.

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In the championship game late Sunday afternoon, the Wildcats scored the game’s first goal for the fifth straight time, but again the Junior Firebirds had the firepower to pull off a comeback.

The Legion’s Mason Lautenschlager opened the scoring at the 5:30 mark of the first period before Flint tied it less than nine minutes later on an Ayden Cook goal, taking the lead for good a little over a minute after that on a Steven Brown power play tally.

Despite having four power play opportunities, Marquette couldn’t get another puck into the net as the Wildcats finished with 30 shots on goal.

In the Legion net, Hayes stopped 10 shots and Nevenhoven 24 as Flint took 40 shots.

Flint scored a pair of goals in each of the final two periods for plenty of insurance off the sticks of Lupu, Cook, Gavin Dopke and Brody Neelands.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.