2023 American Broomball Alliance National Championships

The 2023 American Broomball Alliance Championships took place April 14-16, 2023 in South Bend, IN on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame joins the University of Minnesota-Duluth (2011), Miami University (2013), and University of North Dakota (2015, 2019) in the list of campuses that have hosted the Broomball National Championships. A total of 34 teams made the trip and competed across 8 total divisions.

Men’s A

A smaller Men’s A field made it to South Bend for the 2023 National Broomball Tournament. Kelly Lake and C&L were not able to make the trip so five teams competed for the title. Legion BC, MetX, Chiefs, Blizzard, and Watkins Legion made up the field. Legion BC went 2-0 in pool play and won the tiebreaker over the Chiefs to get the #1 seed heading into bracket play. Watkins Legion and the Blizzard played in the #4 vs #5 play-in game with Blizzard coming out on top. The semifinal matchups were set, Legion BC vs Blizzard and Chiefs vs MetX. MetX won the first semifinal in a hard fought battle between familiar foes. Legion BC won the second semifinal game and advanced to play MetX for a National Championship.

The championship game was back and forth in the first half until MetX struck first on the powerplay, Max Longchamp scoring the goal. Legion BC responded early in the 2nd half on the powerplay to tie the game, Alex Spencer scored on a rebound shot from Max Warr. The game remained tied until just under 4:00 minutes remaining in the second half when Ben Eckhart of Legion BC scored what ended up being the game winning goal, assisted by Justus Foss. Final score 2-1 Legion BC. Corey Swanson had 16 saves in the game for MetX and John Cody (JC) had 9 saves for Legion BC. This was Legion’s 2nd title (2019).

Championship Game: Legion BC vs Met X (Starts at 5:40:00).

Men’s B

The Barrie’s Legends, Bombers, Flames/Wolves, Ice Mafia, and Red Rock competed for the Men’s B title. The former champs showed they still had a lot in the tank by making it through pool play unscathed and securing the top seed. Their dominance continued as they defeated Ice Mafia in the semifinal 5-1 and defeated the Ohio Bombers 4-1 in the championship game. The Bombers were impressive in their run to the final. They were able to get the breakthrough they needed by defeating the Flames/Wolves team in double OT. The goal came in OT  when Dom Somers made an aggressive move to break up the Flames/Wolves zone entry. Andrew Kang collected the ball along the boards and turned down the ice and buried it into the empty net.  The Bombers brought with them enough lines and talent to contend and that’s not easy to do. Their keeper, Gene Tavares, made some killer saves and saw the team through when it was most needed. Huge congratulations to them and this writer looks forward to seeing them on the ice any day, love these guys, their hearts, their raw play and talent.

The Wolves/Flames combo could have been a killer combo. The Wolves dream of looking to sweep the B realm came crashing down, but alas it was a solid group of guys to play with and it was a tournament where they laid it all out on the ice. Their keeper Miller played top tier, and no one line carried or broke the team. It was a good mesh of guys with a good B+, A- future. The ever ongoing battle between Ice Mafia and Red Rock continued with a winner go home pool play game. In overtime the Ice Mafia scored a killer goal knocking out their Minnesota rival. The knockouts were not kind to Ice Mafia losing 5-1 to the Barrie’s Legends, but they put up some goals in this tournament which has been a struggle for them this season. Best of luck in the off season to everyone, get healthy, get fit, get organized and let’s battle next year!

Championship Game: Barrie’s Legends vs Ohio Bombers (Starts at 00:49:00)

Men’s C

The Men’s C division featured 5 teams with both college teams joining for pool play. The first pool included Eastern Eagles, Washington Corruption, and the University of Nebraska. The other pool was composed of the Indiana Invaders, Nebraska Harvest, Rockville (Baltimore) and Miami University. The Washington Corruption went undefeated in pool play and secured the top seed, earning a bye into the semifinals. The Indiana Invaders went 3-0 in pool play securing the top seed in the other pool and a bye. In the quarterfinals, Rockville defeated the University of Nebraska 7-0. In the other quarterfinals, the Harvest defeated the Eastern Eagles 5-0. In the first semifinal, the Corruption defeated Rockville 2-0 with goaltender Tom Mach recording the shutout. In the other semifinal, the Harvest avenged an earlier pool play overtime loss defeating the Invaders 1-0 with goaltender Chris Peters recording the shutout.

In the championship game, the Harvest got out to a fast start as center Ryan Yetts blasted a shot by goalie Tom Mach on the first shift to give the Harvest an early 1-0 lead. The Corruption would answer later in the half when winger Brad Lintner unloaded a shot from the halfboards that got by a screened Chris Peters. A slashing penalty to the Harvest put the Corruption on the power play late in the first half. Winger Tim Kamphaus scored on a one-timer just after the penalty expired to give Corruption a 2-1 lead going into the half. The game played fairly evenly in the 2nd half. Harvest pulled their goalie with 3 minutes remaining to try to put in the equalizer. Goalie Tom Mach was up for the challenge and nothing got by in the last minute frenzy securing the championship for Washington.

This was Washington’s 5th Men’s title (Nomadic Horde – 2012 D, Legislators – 2013 D, Legislators – 2015 C, Regulators – 2017 D). This was Omaha’s first title appearance since winning the 2004 D title.

Championship Game: Nebraska Harvest vs Washington Corruption

Women’s A Division

Rough numbers for the overall Women’s Division this year. With a total of 5 teams participating, only 2 advanced to the Class A Bracket. It was a well-deserved rematch between Arctic Blast and the reigning 2024 MN State champions L’Equipe. During pool play, in a hard-fought battle, Arctic Blast came out victorious 1-0 after all-star Amy Stech scored an amazing game-winning bomb from the slot. The slot wasn’t open, she is just that talented! During the championship game, Arctic had some first-half domination in their offensive zone. Though having zone possession, L’Equipe’s defense shut Arctic down and shots on goal were tied 3 a piece at half. Both teams came out strong in the second. L’Equipe’s former Golden Gopher hockey goalie Kim Halon produced some amazing saves! With about 3 minutes left in the game, Arctic Blast went on a powerplay. Arctic Blast’s Taylor Meyers delivered a flawless pass to Lori Hamski on the backside for a one-timer. It was a beautifully executed powerplay which sealed the deal for Arctic Blast to win the game 1-0. Congrats to AB for winning the Women’s Class A Division National title!

Championship Game: Arctic Blast vs L’Equipe (Game starts at 4:00:00)

Women’s B Division

In the Women’s B Division, the Minnesota Raptors defeated the Heroines in the play-in game to advance to the championship game to face the Wicked Sisters. The Wicked Sisters prevailed 3-0 in the Women’s B Championship game.

We were unable to find video of the championship game.

Co-Rec A Division

After pool play, 4 teams advanced to the Co-Rec Class A Division: Nordiques, Rudy, Squall, and Sweater Mafia. In the semi-finals, Rudy was defeated by Nordiques 4-3. Great game and almost a comeback story, but the luck of the Irish was not on Rudy’s side. In the other semi-final game, Squall defeated a talented Sweater Mafia team 5-0. Running through the tourney undefeated and with a 5-1 victory over Nordiques, Squall was crowned the 2024 Class A Co-Rec National Champions.

Championship Game: Squall vs Rudy (Starts at 1:35:00)

Co-Rec B Division

8 teams competed in the Co-Rec B bracket play. Fighting their way through a crowded field were the Ohio based team Turbulence and the Climate Crisis out of Minnesota. Turbulence prevailed 1-0 in the final and clinched back-to-back Co-Rec B titles.

Championship Game: Climate Crisis vs Turbulence

Collegiate Division

Miami University and the University Nebraska squared off in the Collegiate Championship for the 2nd year in a row. Miami was able to get some revenge from last year with a 1-0 victory. A shorthanded Nebraska team struggled to compete against a fully-loaded Miami team that controlled most of the game.

Championship Game: Miami vs Nebraska (Starts at 4:50:00)