Buffalo Storm Inline Hockey

Hockey on wheels is wide-open sport
By David Briggs NEWS SPORTS REPORTER  
Updated: 07/03/08 7:29 AM  
 
 
No offsides, no icing and no checking can mean no chance for goalies in four-on-four inline hockey.  
 
“Yeah, it’s a little tough,” said A. J. Zaepfel, a 17-year-old goalie from Barker. “There’s probably 10 times more shots on goal than on ice because the game is so wide open.”  
 
But. . .  
 
“I just love it,” he said. “It’s just so much fun, so exciting.”  
 
And no more so than this week with the Tournament of Roller Hockey Series’ National Championship skating into Buffalo on Friday. Zaepfel and more than 2,000 other street puck heads from pee wee to professional will be competing for top dog status in a sport that’s burgeoning locally while trying to shed its outsider image.  
 
“There’s a real perception that this is something kids are just doing at the end of the street or in their parents’ driveway,” said  
 
Rich Gurbacki, league director of the Buffalo In-Line Hockey Group, which has expanded from a handful of teams in 2004 to 36 teams for the fall season. “If people see this tournament, they’re really going to fall in love with the sport. There’s going to be some really good hockey.”  
 
Look for plenty of ice hockey crossover stars at the 950-team tournament, which will run through July 12 at the Amherst Pepsi Center.  
 
Patrick Marroon, a sixth-round draft pick in 2007 by the Philadelphia Flyers, and A. J. Jenks, a left wing taken by the Florida Panthers, will be playing while Sanborn’s Thomas McCollum was a late scratch. McCollum has camp with the Detroit Red Wings, who picked the goalie in the first round of last month’s NHL entry draft.  
 
Tournament organizers, though, want to emphasize the singular excitement of the game on wheels, a sport many hard-shell hockey men observe with a suspicious eye.  
 
“We will always take a back seat to hockey, and a lot of ice hockey coaches believe our game is horrible for their players,” said George Brown, one of the national tournament directors for TORHS and a Buffalo native. “But with the new NHL, inline hockey only helps players.”  
 
He refers to the NHL’s ongoing efforts to promote offense. And no sport does offense quite like roller hockey.  
 
The adapted rules place added importance on speed, puck skills and maintaining possessions. No dumping pucks into the zone here.  
 
“The game is faster, decisions have to be made quicker and you see a lot more cycling the puck than in [ice hockey],” Gurbacki said. “The strategy is completely different.”  
 
Just don’t say it’s not hockey.  
 
“It bothers me when coaches say, “It’s terrible for you,’ ” Zaepfel said. “Roller hockey make you start thinking ahead, makes your hands quicker. So it actually makes you a better [ice] hockey player.”  
 
For a complete schedule of games and events, visit the tournament’s official site at www.torhs.com
 

The Buffalo Storm Junior A Inline Hockey Team, in cooperation with their home arena, the Cheektowaga Recreation Center are proud to announce that Cheektowaga will host the 2008 GLi Championship Weekend.  Scheduled to be held on Saturday, June 21 & Sunday, June 22, 2008. That weekend will feature all 8 GLi Teams slugging it out for the right to become the 2008 Great Lakes Junior A Inline Hockey League Champions.

The tournament seeding will be based on the regular season standings and will use the double elimination format.  A total of 15 games may be played throughout the weekend and we're sure that the action this weekend will be second to none as playoff fever hits Buffalo, NY.

Last years champions, the Kitchener-Waterloo Rage look to be an early favorite as they are returning all but one player from their 2007 Championship squad.