ASHWAUBENON, Wis. – It’s a moment Jackson Woodward had dreamed about his entire life.

When it came time for the Okanagan Hockey Colorado (CO) defenseman to make his dream a reality, he didn’t miss.

Woodward scored 6:28 into overtime to give Okanagan a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Jr. Blues (MO) in the title game of the 2026 Chipotle-USA Hockey Youth Tier I 16U National Championship at the Cornerstone Community Center on Sunday.   

“I couldn’t sleep last night, so I didn’t dream last night,” Woodward joked. “But it’s every kid’s dream from the time you’re playing knee hockey as a kid, dreaming of the OT, Game 7 to now. It’s unreal.”

It didn’t look optimistic that Woodward and his teammates were going to get a shot to score a game-winning goal when they trailed by two goals midway through the third period.

However, riding momentum from sending the game to overtime, Okanagan seemed destined to score.

With the puck in its zone, Okanagan showed off a textbook tic-toc-toe passing sequence. Cooper Martin slid it over to Axel Gleasman, who found an open Woodward creeping down from his primary position at the point.

“I’m a defenseman and somehow, I ended up in the slot. I got the puck, didn’t even really look, shot it hard, it went in. It was unreal,” Woodward said about scoring his lone goal of the tournament. “The most unreal feeling I’ve ever felt in my entire life.”

The celebration was on for Okanagan after Woodward’s shot found the back of the net.

“Every little kid dreams of winning it and dreams of the Game 7 moment, overtime, and we got to live it,” Gleasman said. “It just means the world to me. These guys are amazing. I love every single one of them. They’re brothers for life.”

The Blues opened the scoring in the second period when Quentin Parks put a shot top shelf off an assist from James Montgomery at the 2:43 mark. Still riding high from that goal, Trey Wilson scored off a feed from Montgomery to put the Blues up 2-0 at 8:16.

With its offense being stymied for two and a half periods by Blues goalie Cooper Freeman, Okanagan finally broke through. Brock Stevenson lit the lamp at 8:14 to pull his team within one.

“I don’t care what team you are, if you’re up 2-0 in a championship game or any game, frankly, and you give up a goal, you’re going to tighten up a little bit,” Okanagan head coach John Mitchell said. “That’s a learning curve for a lot of teams and a lot of kids, and it could have gone either way. We could have been up 2-0, they score a goal and all of a sudden, the ice completely tilts. But for us, the ice tilted in the right direction.”

Colton Lien scored to tie it at 2-2 with 1:43 remaining, which set up the overtime heroics for Woodward.

The Okanagan program is in just its fourth year of existence. Last year, the team advanced to the national tournament but didn’t get past the preliminary rounds.

“For us to win a national championship in just our fourth year is something special,” Mitchell said. “It’s just very incredible. I’m grateful and humbly proud of the group and the organization that we have in Denver.” 

Photo/USA Hockey

— Greg Bates/Red Line Editorial for USA Hockey

(March 29, 2026)