Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Young hockey players from across the state will swarm Howelsen Ice Arena for a second consecutive weekend. This time, however, it’s the girls’ turn.

Teams in three divisions will take part in the Adele Dombrowski Memorial Tour­nament, an event started five years ago in memory of the local teen who died of a seizure in September 2005.

Dombrowski was an avid hockey player and a fixture in the local girls youth hockey scene. The weekend tournament is intended to foster development of the sport as it relates to young girls.

“We’ve been successfully building this girls program in hockey in Adele’s memory,” Steamboat Springs Youth Hock­ey Association director Brent Tollar said. “She inspired a ton of girls to come out and play when she was playing, and from that, we’ve seen such a power amongst these young girls. It’s such a strong thing.”

Full-blown tournaments will be put on for the U19 and U12 divisions, both of which will feature strong Steamboat entries intent on winning at home.

The local U16 team will play in a scrimmage.

The U19 and U12 teams so far this season have shown just how powerful Steamboat’s girls program can be.

The U19 team enters the five-team tournament as defending state champions and is 7-1 on this season, packing a powerful offense that outscored a quartet of opponents last weekend, 21-5. Steamboat Springs High School sophomore Hannah Samlowski leads the U19 league with 13 points. She’s followed in the scoring lead by teammates Meghan Lukens, Meg Stabile and Olivia Gorr.

The U12 team, facing off against two other squads this weekend, is 4-0-2, already easily outpacing its win total from last season when it finished 3-16.

The prospect of playing in front of home fans is one the whole team has been looking forward to.

“They are experiencing success for the first time in their hockey careers and to be able to share that with a home crowd is a big deal to them,” Steamboat U12 coach Fred Power said. “This is a big deal for them. They have been looking forward to it all year.”

Action gets under way today at 1:45 p.m. as the Steamboat U12 girls face off against Aspen. Steamboat’s U19 team follows with a 3 p.m. game.

The U16 scrimmage is at 11 a.m. Saturday, and the tournament will wrap up with championship matches Sunday

morning.

The U12 title game is at 10:15 a.m., and the U19 match follows.

An award will be given in Dombrowski’s memory to one player on each of Steamboat’s teams at 5 p.m. Saturday.

A buffet will be available for tournamentgoers at Steamboat Smokehouse in downtown Steamboat Springs from 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday for $10.