Carlynton's Lexi Jones helps Pens Elite 14U team to national title

When her older brother, Jack, and good friend Hannah Price started playing hockey, Lexi Jones got plenty of exposure to the game at an early age. By the time she was 7, she had gone from spectator to player.

Eight years later, Jones is a national champion.

Jones, a rising sophomore at Carlynton, was a key member of the Penguins Elite girls 14U team that won the USA Hockey national title in April in Irvine, Calif. Pens Elite trailed Little Caesars, 3-0, heading into the final period of the title game but rallied for three goals to force overtime, where they won 4-3.

“We all went into that game, we knew we had a chance,” Jones said, “but going into that third period, we didn’t know if we were going to win.”

The 14U team, coached by Kate Binnie, comprised players from across the Mid-Atlantic. Jones said the toughest part was having a group of, essentially, strangers blending their talents and personalities.

Travel took care of that. Pens Elite was on the road almost constantly — they had only two tournaments in the Pittsburgh Area — from the end of August until the April 8 national title game.

All that time together helped the team to jell, Jones said.

“We had a hard time working as a team,” she said. “We had a lot of raw, natural talent. It took a while to start clicking and playing as a team.

“Traveling brings us closer together because we’re all forced to be in a hotel together three nights in a row.”

Jones found her niche as a stay-at-home defender. Binnie said Jones is tailor-made to protect the goalie.

“I like to pair her with someone who likes to rush the puck more,” Binnie said. “She’s strong. She’s a big kid. She makes good decisions, and she knows her skill level and plays very well within that.

“Usually, she is extremely consistent. She’s going to bring that every time.”

Jones showed versatility, too. Binnie said she used her at forward in a couple of games, and she played with surprising abandon, even scoring a couple of goals. But Jones’ future likely will be on defense, and Binnie said she has the ability to play in college — possibly Division I.

“If she works at her foot speed, I think she has the mentality to understand the game well enough,” Binnie said. “Where she lands, we’ll see. Big, good defensemen are hard to find.”

Jones is putting in plenty of work to enhance her chances of playing for a bigger college program. She does a lot of weight training, and, this past spring, she ran track and field at Carlynton, helping the Cougars 3,200-meter relay team finish fourth in the WPIAL and qualify for the PIAA meet.

Last year, she also played for a boys team in the South Hills Area Hockey Association’s in-house league. Playing in a league where checking is allowed, she said, helped her develop more toughness.

She will carry her growing skill set into next season, when she will play for Carrick — Carrick’s high school team comprises girls from several school districts — as well as the 16U Pens Elite team.

After college, if her playing days are, indeed, over, she said she would consider coaching.

In the meantime, before the next steps in her hockey journey, she will continue to bask in the national championship glow.

“This past year,” Jones said, “what we did was every hockey player’s dream.”