Cuban American men's team wins 2024 Amerigol LATAM Cup championship

CORAL Springs, Fla. -- Fans brought out their best cookware to cheer on the Cuban American men's team at the Amerigol LATAM Cup on Sunday.

The team, which was making its first appearance in the tournament, responded to the enthusiastic clanging of pots and pans with a 4-3 victory against Greece to win the men’s Division I championship at the Florida Panthers IceDen. The win came two days after the Cuban American men's team lost 5-2 to Greece during pool play.

“That’s how we bring it,” coach Earle Barrington said. “This is the Cuban flavor. This is how we ring it in.”

Forward Nicholas Amaya scored the game-winning goal with 8:56 remaining, and Tyler Terranova was named the game's most valuable player after making 33 saves.

Terranova, who is of Cuban descent on his mother’s side, joined the team after he responded to an online post from Barrington looking for players with Cuban heritage.

“He contacted me right away and I was very honored,” said Terranova, who is a goalie for the University of Alabama’s club hockey team. “I honestly had no clue we had this many Cuban Americans that play hockey. The talent that we have, who knows how many more are out there and what we can build with them?”

Barrington intends to find out. He said he plans to enter more men’s teams and a women’s team in next year’s tournament.

“I want people around the world to know that minorities, Cubans, Blacks, everyone can play hockey,” Barrington said. “El hockey es para todos (hockey is for everyone).”

This year’s LATAM Cup featured 52 teams and more than 1,100 players representing 17 countries, including Argentina, Armenia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Lebanon, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

The teams competed in seven divisions: men's Division I, II and III, a women's division, and U12, U14 and U16 groups.

The NHL, NHL Players' Association and Florida Panthers were among the sponsors of the tournament, which was founded in 2018 by Juan Carlos Otero, a longtime Panthers fan, to help grow the sport within the Hispanic community both internationally and locally. 

The LATAM Cup’s growth since 2018 prompted this year's tournament to take place at the Florida Panthers IceDen and Baptist Health IcePlex, the 2024 Stanely Cup champion’s new practice facility in Fort Lauderdale. Rob Knesaurek, who is the NHL senior vice president of community development and industry growth, also performed the ceremonial puck drop before the championship game between the Cuban American team and Greece.

Most of the countries and territories that competed in the tournament aspire to play hockey on the world stage but don't have rinks or suitable ice facilities that meet IIHF regulations, which would allow them to play in sanctioned tournaments or qualify for the Olympics.

The hope is that exposure from winning or competing in the tournament will persuade sports federations, Olympic committees or private investors in those countries and territories to support ice hockey, mainly by building rinks.

Algeria is one of those teams with big aspirations, and it entered the LATAM Cup determined to prove that winning the inaugural Dream Nations Cup tournament in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the team's North American debut in April wasn’t a fluke.

Algeria did just that with an 8-3 victory against Egypt to win the men’s Division II championship on Sunday.

“I think we proved that we deserved to be here, deserved to win. We worked hard, and it paid off, finally,” said Nassim Boulakdem, an assistant coach and alternate captain for Algeria. “We hope it will help us grow faster now and help us in Algeria with the government, and I hope that it will bring more people to follow us and want to play hockey.”

Colombia’s U16 team defeated the Mexico Development Program 8-5 on Sunday to win that championship. In men’s Division III, Central America won its first LATAM Cup title by defeating the Caribbean 5-1. The Caribbean team was made up of players with familial ties to islands and territories in that region.

“We’ve had some close calls and some bad years, so this is great,” Central America forward Donald Randall said. “It was grueling a little bit, but it was fun. It’s good representing our families and our heritage, representing and making history.”

The Caribbean women’s team defeated Argentina 5-0 to defend its 2023 LATAM Cup championship. Eight teams played in the women’s division, the largest field in LATAM Cup history.

“It’s an amazing feeling being able to bring more Caribbean girls and showing off what we’re about,” Caribbean coach Jazmine Miley said. “Being able to go back-to-back is an amazing feeling.”

On Saturday, Venezuela defeated Brazil 7-5 for the U12 title, and the Mexico Development Program defeated HPOC (Hockey Players of Color) 4-0 for the U14 championship.