Coach Brian McSparron commented at the end of the National Tournament in Rochester NY that it was an extremely successful week. Looking at the teams and talent at this year’s tournament, I am not all unhappy about going 2-2.

In the tourney opener against Grand Valley State (GVS), it was one of the most exciting GT Hockey games this season. GVS was the hottest team in the tourney coming in; just recently winning their conference and the game could have gone either way. We gave 110% and GVS gave 110%, but unfortunately, someone had to lose. The line of O’Leary, Sweeney and Park was our only scoring line during the game. But the other lines kept up with GVS and provide a good flow of speed and skill throughout the entire game. We matched the speed of GVS 5 on 5 hockey, but, unfortunately, our only two penalties came back to bite us as we gave up two power play goals that was the difference in the game. We won even strength 2-1. This was a very fast and clean game that could have gone our way, but it wasn’t meant to be. I was very proud of our boys for hanging in with this very difficult opening team.

The Albany game was a bit different. It was challenging to get the boys up for this game. Albany also lost a tough game, but came out with a bit more jump in their legs. We kept up with them in the first period, getting behind by just one goal. But the five minute major at the end of the 1st period really hurt us. They scored three power play goals during that time and it put us down by 4 goals in the second. But strange as it would seem, we come back and got 3 goals within 3 minutes and were are still down just by 1. But we give up a last minute goal in the 2nd period to put us down two and I don’t think we mentally could gear up for the comeback. We ended up giving five power play goals and this isn’t going to win hockey games. The O’Leary line, along with Whitney Yiu and Ryan Fritz provided the offense. This loss was difficult to take as we took ourselves out of the game.

With two games down, the team decided that we needed to go home with two victories and that meant skating hard against our next two opponents and getting those wins. This became our new goal. Next up was Penn State University (PSU) at Brandywine. We played real well in the first 40 minutes of the game with great offense from O’Leary, Park, and Fritz. Ben Gartner, getting his first start of the tournament, gave us a big boast with his goal. But after having a three goal lead after two periods, we became complacent and lost our focus. PSU, to their credit, pushed us and forced us into mistakes. They tied the score with half way through the final period and that shook us up. The team started to intensify and regain the edge they had in the first two periods. Maxx Lucas played really big in goal the last 3-4 minutes of regulation that kept us even. Nice set up from Ryan Fritz to Albert Park to get the game winner in overtime. It was great to get our first win.

Our focus was now on College of the Canyons (COC) to get our 2-2 record. We came out real quick in the first four minutes to get three goals. But then we got complacent again and let the COC back into the contest. To this team’s credit, they regained focus and kept scoring to match COC efforts in the remainder of the contest. It was true run and gun game, back and forth with good offense. Fritz had a big hat trick and a couple of assists. Gartner and Jeremy Spafard had some timely goals.

Overall, it was a great last game for our Seniors to go out. An incredible season of 24-4 and winning the Savannah Tourney, Richmond Tourney, GT Holiday Tournament, sweeping Georgia with three victories and qualifying for the Nationals. All of our team goals were accomplished this season. A fine tribute to the leadership of this team and the desire to honor Coach Greg with a true winning season. I am now looking forward to a new future as the torch is being passed on from our seven seniors to a new team of winners.

A big thank you to Sarge Day for his dedication and service to GT Hockey. After 10 years, Sarge will be leaving us. He will be missed.