By Kevin Scott
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Team Black vs. Team White |
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Team Red vs. Team Gold |
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PLYMOUTH, MI., February 16, 2026 — The two-day 2026 NA3HL Top Prospects Tournament that was held in Plymouth, Michigan came to a conclusion on Tuesday where Team White faced Team Black and Team Red challenged Team Gold.
The annual tournament held every year in February highlights the best best hockey talent that the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) has as the selected players get to showcase their skills in front of many coaches and scouts from the North American Hockey League (NAHL), the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and the NCAA and junior college levels.
On Monday, Team White came back from trailing 4-2 after two periods to down Team Red, 5-4. Dayton Niedert of the Badlands Sabres scored one goal and dished out one assist for Team White. Both Great Falls Americans were in action as both Cooper Clouse and Fisher Hannesson each scored on Day 1 of the prestigious tournament. Clouse and Hannesson assisted on the game-winning goal with 16 seconds left to prevent an overtime as Helena Bighorns standout Chase Berg lit up the lamp. Meanwhile, Team Black was down 2-0 after the first period but got their offense going to outscore Team Gold, 7-0 in the middle frame to claim a 7-2 win. Jackson Dougherty of the New Jersey Titans scored twice.
Click here for the game summary from those contests.
Each squad played once on Monday and Tuesday morning. The teams consisted of 20 players (12 forwards, 6 defensemen and two goalies). Players considered for this prestigious event had to be nominated by their respective coaches.
Click here for the Americans press release with full rosters and schedule for each team.
The Frontier Division had a total of 17 players (and three from the East Division’s Binghamton (NY) Buzz) competing in the ‘all-star like” event. In addition to Hannesson and Clouse from the Americans, the Sheridan (WY) Hawks (Dante Hunziker, Vincent Leaf, and Deagan Watson) and the Helena Bighorns (Chase Berg, Austin Uecker, and Cade Feinstein) each had three selections each. The Bozeman Ice Dogs (Devin Bruns and Andrew Kaunas), Yellowstone (WY) Quake (Shayne Smith and Tagen Stout), Gillette (WY) Wild (Riley Schmidt, Andrew Knox) and Badlands (SD) Sabres (Dayton Niedert and Gaven Marx) each had two selections while the Butte Irish had one selection in Jack Whitelaw.
Click here for the full two-day tournament schedule and results.
Cooper Clouse scores the game-winning goal in Team White’s 3-2 victory; Team White finished the tourney 2-0
Great Falls’ Cooper Clouse scored the final lamplighter and Helena’s Chase Berg added one goal and had one assist as Team White capped off the two-day Top Prospects Tournament with two victories. The 3-2 decision by Team White was made possible after neither squad could get any goals in the first period. Ty Smith scored both goals for Team Black.
A total of 21 shots were taken in the first twenty minutes but both goaltenders, Dalton Elliott (Binghmaton Buzz) from Team White and Team Black’s Jayden Serene (Alexandria Blizzard) swatted away all the shots that the opposing offene gave them.
Gillette Wild’s Riley Schmidt put in the first goal of the contest with a helper from the Sheridan Hawks’ Dante Hunziker five minutes into the second stanza. Team Black evened the score before the second intermission on an unassisted tally (with Team White in the sin bin) by Ty Smith, who plays for the Granite City Lumberjacks.
All three third period strikes occurred during a two-minute scoring span highlighted by goals from Chase Berg (Helena) and Cooper Clouse (Great Falls). Team White took advantage of Team Black being in the penalty box to light up the lamp. Vincent Leaf (Sheridan) made Chase Berg’s goal possible with 14:41 left in the contest. Ty Smith added his second (third overall in the tournament) goal with Eli Tiernan from the Granite City Lumberjacks and Stone Resch (Mason City Toros) assisting for the second tie of the contest. Clouse was able to provide his first and only scoring opportunity of the tournament 53 seconds after Smith’s score. The successful power play chance for Cooper Clouse proved to be the game-winner after both teams failed to get in the scoring column durin the final twelve minutes.
Team Black provided 30 of the 59 total shots in the loss.
Dalton Elliott (Team White), representing the Binghamton Buzz, ended the two-day tournament with 25 saves including 16 in Tuesday’s performance. Gillette Wild netminder Andrew Knox swatted away 12 shots to help Team White finish undefeated (2-0). Meanwhile, Jayden Serene (Alexandria Blizzard) and Norwich Sea Captains goalie Peter Alfano had 16 and 12 saves, respectively as Team Black finished the TPT with a 1-1 record.
Team Red needs a shootout to defeat Team Gold on the final day of the TPT
Baylor Stebbins (Granite City Lumberjacks) scored the only successful goal during the shootout to preserve a 2-1 Team Red win over Team Gold during Tuesday morning’s Top Prospects Tournament contest in Michigan.
Team Red jumped ahead 1-0 thanks to Danny Jurcich (West Bend Power) score off a pass from the Wausau Cyclone’s Eli Hofmann six minutes into the opening period.
Despite 3 shots taken over the first two stanzas, Team Red and Team Gold could not convert any goals in the middle period.
Early in the third period, New Mexico Ice Wolves’ Jacob Wenner scored with assists going to Jack Slotka (Louisiana Drillers) and John Scharf of the Texas Brahmas to even the contest, 1-1.
A shootout was needed to declare a winning team. Baylor Stebbins (Granite City Lumberjacks) gave Team Red the win as he was the only player to score on the opposing goaltender. Teammates Jack Baker (Long Beach Sharks) and Reece Beckwith (Carolina Rage) tried unsuccessfully to score. Jacob Wenner (New Mexico Ice Wolves), Jake Bambeck (Austin Ice Bats) and Kenneth Cadwallader (El Paso Rhinos) came up short for Team Gold.
Team Red accrued 21 of their 30 of their shots-on-goal before the third period. Team Gold finished the three period contest with 16 shots.
Tyler MIller, the goaltender from the Carolina Rage, made 15 saves while allowing one goal in the third frame. Lleyton Jaschke (Wisconsin Woodsmen) did not play for Team Red. Joshua Middleton (New Mexico Ice Wolves) stopped all 14 shots before being relieved by Brayden Macko (El Paso Rhinos) who acquired 15 saves in 25 minutes of action on the ice.
To view more information about the 2026 Top Prospects Tournament, please visit the tournament webpage: http://na3hl.com/tpt/