Los Alamos youth hockey players shine in Texas World Cup tournament

A pair of 8-and-under hockey teams built from Los Alamos and Santa Fe skaters went to Odessa, Texas, and came home as the only teams in the Hockey World Cup Tournament from outside Texas, a field that included large programs from Fort Worth, Austin, El Paso, Amarillo and Odessa.

The Northern New Mexico players were split into two combined squads, one playing as Argentina and the other as Finland. The Argentina team, led by Gurmukh Khalsa in net and Carter Disterhaupt on offense, beat Odessa in the quarterfinals and El Paso in the semifinals before falling to Austin in the championship game to finish second overall in its division. The Finland team, led by Korbin Parton and Wyatt Smith, opened with a win over a much larger Fort Worth team before dropping a close semifinal to Odessa, which went on to win the tournament.

Head coach Joe Artnak said he was proud of how well the players and teams competed, and the results gave Los Alamos County families something more than a weekend sports result. In a small hockey market where every roster spot matters, the tournament showed that local and regional development can produce players who hold up against much bigger programs with deeper pools of skaters and more ice time.

The rosters also reflected how broad the local hockey base has become. Players named in the tournament coverage included Islay Rosenow, Dominic Porto, Asher Johnson, Santiago Tanuz, Maxton Wooten, Cayden Gong, Orion Johnson, Angus Dean, Ryan Sargent, James Johnson, Tyrus Rogahn, Islay Dean, Rhys Cannon, Andres Roybal, Cruz Viramontes, Arthur Zerr, Luke Mietz, Lincoln Disterhaupt, Devlin Rosenow, Eddie Artnak and Eli Artnak. That kind of depth matters in a county where youth hockey is sustained by families, volunteers and shared ice time rather than by a large metro population.

Los Alamos Hockey Association serves Los Alamos and White Rock with house and recreational teams from U6 through U18, while Santa Fe Hockey Association fields U6 through U18 teams for the greater Santa Fe area out of the Genoveva Chavez Community Center. The Odessa trip closed out the 2025-26 season after LAHA had already launched its winter schedule locally with a season-opening jamboree at the Los Alamos County Ice Rink, where teams from across northern New Mexico helped keep the pipeline moving.