The Ashburn Xtreme youth hockey club will get two chances to bring home its first national championship when the nine-year-old organization sends a pair of teams to USA Hockey tournaments starting April 7.

The Xtreme’s U16 AA 1 squad travels to West Chester, Pa., to compete against 11 others for its first national title. Their younger brethren, the Peewee AA 97s, stay closer to home, as the Ashburn Ice House and Reston SkateQuest will host contests in their 12-team national meet.

“Having two teams go to nationals is a really great thing for the club,” said Xtreme executive director and seventh-year U16 head coach Gary Pouliot, who saw the Xtreme send its U16 and Bantam teams to nationals in 2005.

It is the first time the Xtreme have had a Peewee (12- and 13-year-olds) team make it to nationals, while Ashburn’s U16s are on the big stage for the fifth time.

Best chance yet

Pouliot’s U16 bunch is bound for the Philadelphia area carrying the highest winning percentage ever achieved by an Ashburn Xtreme team of any level. The local kids ran through the Capital Beltway Hockey League unbeaten and untied in 21 contests.

The veteran coach likes his squad’s chances, particularly when he has Tyler LeFebvre of Briar Woods between the pipes.

“LeFebvre gives you a good chance to win any game,” Pouliot said of his top goaltender. “We play defense, we have two good lines. It’s the best shot we’ve ever had.”

LeFebvre enters the national tournament with a 25-3-1 overall mark, owning a 1.31 goals-against average and stopping 94 percent of opponents’ shots.

“He’s the one guy I can’t lose,” Pouloit said. “He’s as good a goalie as Ashburn has had.”

The Falcon junior is helped by Stone Bridge’s Patrick Young, an anchor of a defenseman who garnered Player of the Year honors this season for his work with the Bulldogs in the Northern Virginia Scholastic Hockey League.

Young is one of three Xtreme defensemen, along with Kyle Lewis and Patrick O’Bryan, to compile plus-minus stats of over 100 on the season.

Broad Run’s Austin Tigmo is a tough-minded defenseman who sits second on the team in penalty minutes with 50.

This year, Stone Bridge’s Andrew Baron became the first Xtreme U16 player to top 100 points and 50 goals in the same season. He is on a prolific scoring line with Bulldog teammate Anthony Moffa (22 goals) and Loudoun County’s Eric Bobel (30 goals).

Brad Bullen of Stone Bridge has registered 31 goals, while western Loudoun native Matt Hastman has lit the lamp 34 times. A pair of Fairfax County residents, Timmy Pierce and Bryan Sandt, have combined for another 68 tallies for Ashburn.

“This is the best record any Xtreme team has ever had,” Pouliot said. “And this team will be better next year.”

Pouliot points out the bevy of 15-year-olds who see ice time with his club, including Hastman, Moffa and Potomac Falls’ Brian Peak. When Pouliot first coached the U16 team seven seasons ago, 30 players tried out. Now, more than 100 seek a spot with the Xtreme.

“It’s been a pretty successful program so far,” said Pouliot, who has had several players move on to college programs like Ohio State, Army, Brown and Delaware, where his son plays. “It’s been quite a ride.”

In all, 11 of the 17 players listed on the Xtreme’s U16 roster hail from Loudoun, including a pair of third-line wingers in Broad Run’s Ryan Ferguson and Briar Woods’ Michael Reist.

The Xtreme face off against Fort Wayne to open the round-robin section of the tournament April 7 before turning their attention to challenges from North Dakota and Spokane, Wash.

It was North Dakota that knocked Ashburn out of last year’s national tourney, winning by one.

“I think we can play with them,” Pouliot said. “We have a better team this year, and Tyler’s better too.”

Peewee’s not so little

Steve Schneider, fourth-year coach of the Xtreme’s Peewee AA 97s, believes his squad may be the biggest team the Xtreme has had at that level.

“We have a very solid team, with size and speed,” Schneider said. “We have a very strong core group of players who’ve played together for the last five, six years, so they have a great hockey sense.”

The Xtreme took first place in three of the four tournaments they played in, piling up enough victories to capture the regular-season title of the Capital Beltway Hockey League. They went on to win the state championship March 14 in Hampton Roads.

Zach Regester, an Ashburn native, is a fleet-footed skater who leads the team in scoring.

“He’s got exceptional speed, and he’s become very smart on the ice,” Schneider said. “He has a knack for breaking to the net and stick handling.”

Regester is aided in the offensive zone by fellow Ashburnite Trey Aiello and Devin Melice of Prince William County. The two are among a host of Xtreme players who understand positioning well, Schneider said.

Jack Klerekoper, of Ashburn, is an offensive-minded defenseman with the team’s hardest slap shot. He heads a stable of big, physical defenders.

They are backstopped by athletic netminder David Altman of Great Falls, who employs a Russian-style split stance when dropping down to stop pucks.

“He’s extremely flexible,” Schneider said. “Over last three years, he’s really become technically proficient.”

After opening the tournament’s round-robin portion at Reston SkateQuest against Fort Wayne, Ind., the Xtreme are set to battle Spokane, Wash., in the Ashburn Ice House before returning to Reston to face Southpointe, Pa.

“When I look at the teams we’re playing, Southpointe is the toughest,” Schneider accessed. “We beat them in a tournament in Pittsburgh [in September], so we think we’ll do fine. We just have to win that first game and get some confidence.”

Ashburn Xtreme national contenders

Club: U16 AA 1
Overall record: 47-3-5
Goals for/against: 296/75
First national tourney game: April 7 in West Chester, Pa.

Club: Peewee AA 97s
Overall record: 37-12-1
Goals for/against: 210/103
First national tourney game: April 7 at Reston SkateQuest

Ashburn Xtreme Peewee AA 97s

In the front row, from left, are Devin Melice, Nicholas Kaufman, Tyler Cowden, David Altman, Alex Olschewske, Logan Broadbent, Gregory Schneider and James Waiter. In the back row are Keegan Flood, Christopher O’Brien, Brad Cademartori, Brian Jordan, Luke Benitez, William Clemson, Jack Klerekoper, Zach Regester, Charlie Berry and Trey Aiello. Head coach Steve Schneider is in back.—Courtesy Photo

Ashburn Xtreme U16 AA 1

In the front row, from left, are Tyler LeFebvre, Andrew Baron, Patrick Young, Ryan Ferguson, Brian Peak, Austin Tigmo and Jimmy Rosen. Back row are Coach Pouliot, Chris Diner, Patrick O’Bryan, Michael Reist, Bryan Sandt, Eric Bobel, Anthony Moffa, Matt Hastman, Brad Bullen, Coach Norman, Kyle Lewis and Timmy Pierce.—Courtesy Photo