The Bend Bullets were happy to be home Tuesday. Happier still to be returning home as national champions.

The Bullets blasted their way to the Six Pac USA 2004 Nationals 12-and-under roller hockey championship, posting a perfect 6-0 record. The Bullets capped the Texas Slapshot All-Stars 5-4 in overtime Saturday to claim the championship in the four-day tournament, held at the Rocky Mountain Roller Hockey Center in Lakewood, Colo.

Every Bullet earned at least a point, except goalie Jetta Rackleff, 12. But then, goalies typically don’t score points. They keep opponents from scoring them, which Rackleff did aplenty, racking up four shutouts and a 1.34 goals-against average for the tournament.

Rackleff, the only female Bullets player in the tournament, played for both the Bullets’ U-10 and U-12 teams. She was selected to the all-star teams for both age groups and was tapped to play at the 2004 AAU Junior Olympic Games.

The roller hockey National Junior Olympics are slated for July 30-Aug. 8 in St. Louis. According to USA Hockey InLine rules, girls may play down one youth division from their age, which is how Rackleff is eligible for the 10U team.

”She’s an amazing little goalie,” said Butch Roberts, head coach of the U-12 Bullets.

Rackleff, who also is second in the 2004 Mini World Cup Buddy Warner junior ski-racing standings, said she’s a little nervous about the Junior Olympics, where she’ll play in front of scouts she hopes will select her for an Olympic training camp.

”If I get nervous, I freak myself out, so I try not to think about all of the things that get you nervous,” said Rackleff, an eighth-grader at High Desert Middle School this fall. ”It’s just like a roller coaster. You freak yourself out on the way up and then scream all the way down.”

Riley Shannon, 12, the Bullets’ top scorer at nationals, amassed 17 points off 12 goals and five assists, including the winning overtime goal in the championship game.

”That kid’s amazing,” Roberts said. Shannon was the tournament’s Most Valuable Player and high scorer.

The Bullets racked up 33 tournament goals, while allowing only nine. The other Bullets championship-team members include Sal Del Pozzo, who had 13 points in the tournament; Austin Sears, 11; Bradley Miller, 9; Parker Ravera, 8; Logan Olsen, 7; Garrett Smith, 1; Davis Rapp, 1; and Tyler Horton, 1.

Roberts, longtime Bullets coach, said his team was on top of its game, backing up its 32-2 season record with the national title. The team has dominated all local comers this season, he said, so it was nice to gauge how it stacks up against the country’s top U-12 teams. There were 16 total U-12 teams at the national tournament.

”We’ve been killing kids in the Northwest, so this was good for (The Bullets),” Roberts said. ”When you’ve got big kids in a small fishbowl, you want to get out into the world and see how they do.”

The team practiced four or five days per week this season, including conditioning training with Roberts’ assistant coaches, Eric Colter (captain of the 1998 USA Hockey Inline National Junior Team) and John Kromm. The U-12 Bullets sets their sights on becoming national champions after winning the Six Pac regional qualifier, held in June at Mount Hood Sports Arena in Clackamas.

”They’re a great group of kids. I love these kids,” Roberts said. ”Every few years, you get a group you can bond with and who are really committed to the team.”

In the round-robin opener at nationals, the Bullets shut out three teams – 6-0, 4-0, and 8-0 – to earn a quarterfinal berth. Roberts said the quarterfinals’ competition was ”much better,” although you wouldn’t know it by Bullets’ 6-2 trumping of the Club USA Titans.

The semifinals saw the Outcasts and Bullets battling to a 3-3 tie at the end of regulation. One minute into overtime, Revera scored off a pass from Miller for the 4-3 win, landing the Bullets into the championship game.

The Bullets took the lead 30 seconds into the championship game, as Sears scored off a Del Pozzo assist. Three minutes later, Sears did it again, this time on a power play. However, the All-Stars, appearing in their third straight championship game, wouldn’t go into the half quietly, as they scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-2 lead.

The Bullets evened the score at the end of the second half, as Miller slapped one in from a Del Pozzo pass. That duo then got the go-ahead goal, as Del Pozzo, fresh off sitting out a penalty, flew out of the box, took a long pass from Miller, froze the All-Stars’ goalie, and tapped in an easy backhand.

It looked like the Bullets had the championship in the bag, but with less than a minute to go, Rackleff flattened one of the All-Stars who she said kept crowding her crease, earning her a tripping penalty.

Rackleff said she’d already weathered a stick to the jaw and an arm wrenching when one of the All-Stars grabbed her stick. She added that despite her defensemen’s best efforts, the All-Stars continued to jam the crease, so she took matters into her own hands.

”Yeah. I tripped him,” Rackleff said, flashing a mischievous grin.

The All-Stars took advantage of the late penalty, pulling their goalie for a two-player advantage. The Bullets rifled two empty-net shots, missing both, and were stunned when the All-Stars scored with 10 seconds remaining, Roberts said.

”That was a huge momentum swing,” he said, adding that he gave his squad a quick pep talk during the one-minute breather between regulation and overtime.

”I gathered the kids together and said, We can win this,’ ” Roberts said.

The talk worked. The Bullets flew down the rink, putting the pressure on and holding the puck in the All-Stars’ zone. Barely a minute into overtime, Miller, in deep, fired a pass to Shannon, who slammed it into the net for the championship 5-4 win.

Roberts said the teams hold open tryouts every winter for several age categories, including adults. The teams compete throughout the Northwest, typically playing more than 30 games per season, and cap their year off with the Northwest Cup.

The U-12 Bullets will play in the 11th Annual Northwest Cup on Aug. 27-29. That weekend is for the youth squads, while the adult teams compete Aug. 20-22. Both tournaments will be at Central Oregon Indoor Sports Center, located at 20795 High Desert Lane.

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Dallas Finn can be reached at 383-0393.