Team Argentina: [front row, left to right] Islay Rosenow, Dominic Porto, Asher Johnson, Santiago Tanuz, Maxton Wooten, Carter Disterhaupt, Cayden Gong, Orion Johnson, Alex Johnson (Coach), [middle row, left to right] Angus Dean, Ryan Sargent, James Johnson, Gurmukh Khalsa, Tyrus Rogahn, Islay Dean, Rhys Cannon, [back row, left to right] Michael Rosenow (Coach), Joe Gong (Coach), Elizabeth Johnson (Coach), Cory Johnson (Coach), Joe Artnak (Coach), [not pictured] Eli Artnak. Courtesy photo
Team Finland: [front row, left to right] Andres Roybal, Cruz Viramontes, Wyatt Smith, Arthur Zerr, Luke Mietz, Lincoln Disterhaupt, Korbin Parton, Devlin Rosenow, Eddie Artnak, [back row, left to right] Josh Mietz (Coach), Jason Disterhaupt (Coach), [not pictured] Joe Artnak (Coach). Courtesy photo
SPORTS News:
The Los Alamos Hockey Association (LAHA) and Santa Fe Youth Hockey Association (SFYHA) Mites (8U) youth hockey players came together to represent Northern NM at the Hockey World Cup Tournament in Odessa, TX to close out their 2025-26 season.
With outstanding performances by both the regular and travel division teams, these players proved that NOT EVERYTHING is bigger and better in Texas!
This tournament brought in large hockey programs from all over TX including Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, Amarillo, and Odessa. The combined players from LAHA and SFYHA represented our significantly smaller population and hockey program from Northern NM and the only two teams from outside of TX.
Led by Gurmukh Khalsa in net (saves leader) and Carter Disterhaupt (points leader), the regular division Mites (8U) combined team (representing Argentina) had remarkable performances in the playoff beating both Odessa in the quarterfinals and El Paso in the semifinals before falling short in the Championship game to Austin and taking home 2nd place overall in the tournament division. This team included many of the Atoms (6U) players from LAHA that will be moving up to Mites (8U) next year as well as on-ice leaders James Johnson and Rhys Cannon from SFYHA.
The travel division Mites (8U) combined team (representing Finland) was led by Korbin Parton (points leader) and Wyatt Smith (lead defensemen) from LAHA as well as solid on-ice play from Andres Roybal and Cruz Viramontes from SFYHA. The team had a remarkable, landmark victory over the much larger Fort Worth hockey team and program in opening-day play before losing a nail-biter in the semifinals to Odessa, the eventual tournament champions.
“I am so proud of how well all our players and teams competed in this tournament and all season”, Head Coach Joe Artnak said. “These programs pull from hundreds of thousands to millions of folks in their respected communities to build these teams and programs from TX and we proved that Northern NM has the talent and youth ice hockey programs to compete at and against the highest levels of recreation hockey from TX. I could not be more excited about these young players, their commitment to the sport, and the outlook for next season. It’s a great time to be a part of Northern NM youth hockey, especially in Los Alamos and Santa Fe.”
LAHA is committed to bringing another season of recreational in-line roller hockey to the Los Alamos County Ice Rink this summer. Final details will be released to the Los Alamos and Santa Fe communities within the next 4 to 6 weeks with a projected start date around the first or second week of June. If you have questions before these details become available, please reach out to Nicole Artnak (LAHA Roller Hockey Team Manager); or the LAHA President.