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The Squirt A hockey team of the Stamford Youth Hockey Association is flying high after winning two tournaments this season. The most recent victory came in the Can/Am Challenge Cup in Lake Placid, N.Y., where the Sharks beat a team from Brampton, Ontario, 8-2, in the championship game.
The Sharks also won the Silver Sticks at Bridgeport in late November, outscoring opponents 28-4 in five games.
"We've got a competitive group that has been together for about three years,'' coach Roger Haggerty said. "They work at it and have become a pretty solid hockey team."
The players are 9 and 10 years old and play a strong defense. In Lake Placid, the Sharks allowed 12 goals in five games and went 4-1 in the tournament. They lost their second game to Brampton, 3-1, and trailed Lexington-Bedford, Mass., 3-1 in the third game. The Sharks rallied for a 4-3 victory, and then advanced to the title game with a 5-3 win over the Ashburnham Xtreme.
The Sharks Squirts stand at 18-12-2 for the season. Most of those losses came early in the season, and the team is 10-1-1 in its last 12 games. It stands a 7-3-1 in the Connecticut Hockey Conference after beating Northwestern and Darien last weekend.
The Squirts' win in the Can/Am Challenge Cup was part of a strong weekend for the SYHA. The Mite A team took the silver medal, and A.J. Cerbone won the Mite shootout. Max Sharp of the SYHA's Squirt A1 team won the Can/Am Cup scholarship.
Photo: Coaches (left to right): Asst Coach Mike Bernard, Asst Coach Pete Hart, Head coach Roger Haggerty
Players on podium: Jordan Marchese, Richard Focke, Jessica Hendry, Zach DeLeo, Brendan Knightly, Tommy Hendricks, Shane Haggerty, Aaron Pinto, Kyle Bernard.
Players on ice: Everett Dolan, Ryan Hart, Goalie Ben Hathaway, Tony DiPreta.
Missing from the tournament was forward Remy Gibson, who suffered a broken arm in the Silver Sticks semi the prior weekend.
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