UTICA, N.Y. - The Raleigh Raptors are golden.
One of five area teams to go to the 2025 Chipotle-USA Hockey's Championships, the Raptors earned a Youth Tier II 18U trophy on Sunday, taking a 4-0 victory over the Green Bay Bobcats.
After dropping their first game at the tournament to the Alaska Valley Thunder, they then rattled off five consecutive victories to earn the title, including back-to-back shutouts to close out the run. Goaltender William McKinley turned away a ridiculous 47 shots against the Texas Tigers to get his team to the championship game, before turning in another perfect performance, where he stopped all 21 thrown at him from Green Bay.
“It’s been a long journey for us,” coach Ed Levens told USA Hockey via an article produced by Red Line Editorial. “To bring home a championship to Raleigh is really special. We just played so hard. All weekend the kids bought in to playing a certain way — unselfish. We run four lines. I’m really proud of our boys.”
