For Immediate Release

WSHL 2011

Thorne Cup Championship

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As one might expect, the WSHL League Championship Playoff between the Western Division Champion Idaho Junior Steelheads and Midwest Division Champion El Paso Rhinos this coming weekend (March 18-20) will feature the leading scorer from each division.  Two more players from each team are in the respective Top 10’s.

El Paso‘s Tyler Beasley, a forward from Indianapolis who played his youth hockey in Las Vegas, has had an explosive year in 2010-2011.  He had a goal and assist in each of the two Division series games to skyrocket his point total on the season to 103.  His 44 goals, 59 assists, and 2.06 points per game are all Midwest Division and WSHL leaders.

Junior Steelheads co-captain Nate Stanley, a resident of Meridian, Idaho, who advanced through the ranks of Boise area youth hockey, is the top scorer in the Western Division.  His three points in the division-clinching game vaulted him over Tim Linehan of the Long Beach Bombers for the division scoring lead, 76 points to 74.

Stanley is the division’s top goal scorer with 36.  He has 40 assists to this point.  His 1.55 points per game is just behind Linehan’s 1.61.

Stanley led the Junior Steelheads in 2009-2010 with 65 points in 51 games, also appearing with the WSHL All-Star team at the 2010 National Tournament in Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Beasley and Stanley also share the experience of playing some of their U18 hockey in Dallas, Texas.  Beasley was with the Dallas Ice Jets.  Stanley played for the Dallas Penguins. 

For the Junior Steelheads, center Stephen Rock, a center from Tulsa, Oklahoma, is second on the team and sixth in the Western Division with 52 points on 22 goals and 30 assists.   

He has also had an amazingly low total of penalty minutes – just 11 minutes in 48 games.

However, for Rock, the 11 minutes must seem like an eternity.  During the 2009-2010 season for the Junior Steelheads, Rock was assessed only two penalties, for four minutes, in 51 games.

Rock was also chosen last year for the WSHL All-Star Team.

Center Matt Sanford of North Pole, Alaska, joined the Junior Steelheads after the season was under way but has still managed to be third high scorer on the team and 10th in the division.  Sanford, brother of current Steelhead and former Rhino forward, Navarone Copley, has amassed 45 points on 19 goals and 26 assists in 39 games.

For the Rhinos, forward Todd Thomas, from Davidsville, Pennsylvania, is second on the team and third in the Midwest Division with 65 points so far, fashioned on 30 goals and 35 assists.

Forward Frankie Posillico, from Massapequa, New York, follows on the Rhinos team with 59 points and is eighth in the division with his 23 goals and 36 assists to date.

Posillico’s outstanding total of only 12 penalty minutes so far is just one more than Rock’s, and he has played in 49 games.

El Paso will host the Jr. Steelheads, with games Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 PM MDT at the Sierra Providence Event Center in El Paso.  If a third game is necessary to see which team will capture the Thorne Cup for 2010-2011, it will be played at 5:30 PM on Sunday.

As division champions, both teams have already earned berths in the Junior A Tier III National Tournament to be played in Rochester, Minnesota, April 1-5.

 Idaho beat the defending league champion Phoenix Polar Bears 3-2 in overtime last Friday, and 5-1 last Saturday, to earn their first ever division crown in just their second year of existence.

The Rhinos swept two games from the Boulder Junior Bison, 5 to 3 and 4 to 1, to avenge last year’s Boulder division win.  El Paso gets to resume its fine record of appearances at the National Tournament which the Junior Bison's interrupted.

Fans and followers of the Junior Steelheads used to seeing and hearing webcasts of the Junior Steelheads home games on www.fasthockey. Com can connect to the B2 network El Paso uses through the El Paso website on the WSHL league website.

Submitted by Dick Dorfman – Junior Steelheads Play-by-Play – (208) 514-5419