Of the 16 teams that will be playing in this week’s USA Hockey Tier 1 15 Only Nationals in Fargo, ND, no less than five of them will be Beast Tournament Series programs.

The Long Island Gulls enter the Nationals as the #6 seed and will bring to the tournament a highly-powered offensive attack, one that was on display during the Beast games last fall.

Kevin Lysohir, who had a big fall season in Beast League play, piled up 76 points during the Gulls’ season, as did Sean Miller. Canadian native Maxim Dube had 75 points. Dylan Dean has 60 points.

“While we hope to continue to put up good offensive numbers, it’s imperative to stick to our structure and detail and allow the offense to come to us,” said LI Gulls coach Justin Agosta.

Long Island’s defensemen also like to get involved offensively. Pennsylvania native Rhys Medved has 62 points, and is joined by Anthony Pedalino and big (6-1, 190) Roman Scala 37 pts.

In goal the Gulls boast Jordan Vakich and Alexander Kim.

#3 Shattuck St. Mary’s, #14 Okanagan Academy and fellow Beast League member #11 Neponset River Rats will be on the schedule.

The Neponset River Rats look forward to seeing the Gulls, the team they lost to in the Beast 15 championship game.

Key forwards project to be Cam McPherson from St. Mark’s, Michael Federico from Thayer, Chase Field from Barnstable HS, and Tampa native Alexander Theodore.

Kristopher Soja from Nobles, and Thomas Broderick out of Dexter Southfield will lead the River Rats defense in front of goalies Vinnie D’Urso (Andover HS) and Cody Hew (Canterbury).

The River Rats-LI Gulls contest is set for Tuesday at 5pm.

#8 seed Seacoast Performance Academy comes in and looking to show what it can do in this tournament.

“We have a strong forward group that trusts our structure,” said SPA coach Kurt Mallett. “Additionally, our guys are creative and skilled enough to make plays when that structure breaks down. We have four lines that can all create and score, which makes us tough to defend.”

Driving the SPA offense will be Timony Kazda (78 pts), a native of Slovakia, New Hampshire’s Danil St. Pierre (62 pts), Maine’s Garrett Turcotte (55 pts) and Jackson Smail (48 pts).

Defensively, burly 6’4″ Sullivan Martin will be factor and has 41 points. Slovakian Simon Suranyi put up 36 pts from his blue line position.

In goal, look for Parker Stockseth or Filip Vavro to be between the pipes.

Seacoast will face #9 Boston Jr. Eagles, #16 Team North Dakota, and on Thursday, the top seed in the tournament – the Chicago Mission.

“After beating the Mission earlier in the year, our guys are going into that matchup extremely confident,” Mallett said. “We know they have a really strong team and are going to play us tough, but our guys know how to rise to the occasion against the best of teams.”

The New Jersey Rockets drew the #10 seed and the feeling is solid defensive play will be the key to any success.

“In order to advance out of our group we are going to have to defend our neutral and defensive zone, with all five guys playing together as one,” said Rockets coach Matt Juneau. “We have our biggest wins this season when we hold our opponents to three or less goals. It’s usually a race to three. Whoever gets to three first usually wins.”

Offensive leaders project to be Nicholas Desiderio, coming off a 45-pt season with Christian Brothers Academy, Ryan Tserlin, Will Schlechtweg, a key cog at Bergen Catholic, Lucas Salvatore and Benjamin Marcolini.

Nathan Bienstock, Mark Konstantinov, Alex Hriczov and Daniel Maglathlin look to have a big tournament for the Rockets on defense. In goal, Ilya Nikitins has 36 wins and a 1.82 gaa.

“We have been successful this season when every line scores,” said Juneau. “We are a deep team offensively and rely on scoring from many different areas. Nathan Bienstock and Mark Konstantinov have provided firepower from our defensive unit, which collectively as a group have chipped in with 38 goals this season.”

The Rockets will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite, Rhode Island Saints and Los Angeles Jr. Kings in round-robin play.

The Mid-Fairfield Rangers go into the tournament as the #5 seed.

Maddox Boyle and Joe Gannon look to have a big week up front for the Rangers.

Colin Feeley will be a key defenseman. Big Jacoby Weiner (6’3″) and Ryan Arcamone are the team’s goaltenders.

On the docket for Mid-Fairfield are the #12 New York Saints, #13 Carolina Jr. Hurricanes and #4 Little Caesars.