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DENVER, Colo. - This past week's schedule for the Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy was a quiet one, but the program's 2008 and 14-and-under teams were busy with their first games of the season, traveling to CCM's Denver Tournament. Both teams wrapped up the weekend with at least one win, and the 14U squad wrapped up a five-game visit on a high note with a third-place finish.

The 2008 team reached the semifinals in the 10-team Ribcor Division, tying both of its games on Friday. The Wild and West Dundee Leafs tied their Friday morning game 5-5, and the St. Louis Sting matched the Wild to a 2-2 tie. Wenatchee opened its Saturday with an afternoon victory over the California Wave by a 2-1 count, giving them and the Arizona Bobcats West team identical four-point totals in pool play. Wenatchee held off the Bobcats for a 3-2 quarterfinal victory Saturday night before dropping a 6-1 decision to the Littleton Hawks in Sunday's semifinal round.

The Wild 14U team ran into a powerful Colorado contingent playing on a virtual home rink, but wrapped up in the top half of the six-team Supertacks Division with a third-place finish. Wenatchee fell 6-0 to the Colorado Thunderbirds in the weekend opener Friday afternoon, before taking a 3-1 loss to the Okanagan Hockey program. The Wild gave the Colorado Rampage all they could handle in a 6-4 defeat Saturday afternoon, but reached the semifinal round by virtue of a better goal differential than a pair of teams that also went 0-3 in pool play. Though the Wild would take an identical 6-0 loss to the Thunderbirds in the semifinals, they rebounded to earn a 5-4 victory over the Rampage in the tournament's third-place contest.

"It was a very good weekend for them, especially for their first games," said Wenatchee Wild Hockey Academy director Troy Mick. "They started the third week of August, so for them to go down there and play really good competition was very good. I was excited for the 14s, with the way they finished the weekend. It's always tough when you haven't played a game, and you're finding out what players can do and cannot do. Our first year having that 2008 midget minor team, I was ecstatic for their progress, because playing other 15-only teams, it shows that we're right there with them and we played really well against them."

The Wild U18 and U17 teams were not in action this past weekend, but will begin Canadian Sport School Hockey League play on Saturday and Sunday with a visit to the RINK Hockey Academy. Both teams' games on both days will be played in Vernon at Kal Tire Place, the home rink of the British Columbia Hockey League's Vernon Vipers. The RINK U18 team will be coached by NHL legend Jarome Iginla after he led the program's U15 team a year ago, and former Wenatchee development team standout Brody Gillespie will be part of the RINK U18 roster after scoring 100 points for Iginla's U15 group last season.

"RINK Hockey Academy has a lot of top Western Hockey League draft picks that play for them, but it's going to be a good challenge," said Mick. "We're looking forward to getting ready and getting up at four in the morning and driving to Vernon this weekend."

The CSSHL squads are coming off of games the previous Saturday against the Seattle Jr. Kraken - while the Wenatchee Wild were preparing for a Western Hockey League preseason contest against the Tri-City Americans, the U18 team was coming off of a 12-2 victory over the Jr. Kraken in their first outing of the year, and the U17 group finished with a 2-2 tie. Right now, Mick says his players are settling into their spots on the team and learning which players each man plays with best.

"That's the toughest thing - we had the conditioning camp for a week, and then we've been together for two weeks, and we've played one game," said Mick. "We're still early in the process, and we're hammering the systems this week in our practices. We've had a lot of guys out with the flu this week, so it makes things a little bit tougher when you have practices. We're now going to start getting into the meat of the season, where you're pretty much gone every weekend."

The U17 and U18 teams will play doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday, with the U17s playing first. Saturday's first game in Vernon starts at 11:15 a.m., and Sunday's first game is set for 9:30 a.m. The Wild 14U team will play two games of its own against the Seattle Jr. Kraken at the end of the month, while the 2008 team will return to competition in early November at the CCM World Invite in Chicago.