Pee Wee AAA Finds Success in Phoenix

Published January 08, 2012 00:00

By Andy Barclay

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The San Jose Pee Wee AAA Minor 2000 team had an excellent tournament over the long Thanksgiving weekend in Phoenix. Our first game of the weekend was a scrimmage against the Phoenix Firebirds AAA Pee Wee Major team. This was our team's first game against a true 99 AAA team and, combined with the early hour (6am!), it showed. We lost this game 11 - 1, but it was an excellent learning experience for our boys. When confronted with a bigger, faster team we need to think and act faster. A lone tally for the Sharks was scored on a nice breakaway.

A few hours later, we played our first tournament game against the the Phoenix DYHA Firebirds 00 team. Bruised after the earlier exhibition loss, the boys came out with determination and, despite giving up the first goal of the match, skated to a 5 - 2 win.

On Friday afternoon, the Sharks played the La Jolla Jaguars for their third game of the day. The sharks players had to dig down deep to overcome fatigue after having given everything they could in the first two games. It proved to be quite a contest. Both teams held each other to a scoreless first period. San Jose struck first, netting a goal at the midpoint of the second period, then again in the early part of the 3rd. La Jolla wasn't about to give up, however, managing to score 2 goals in 40 seconds in the middle of the final period to eek out a tie.

On Saturday morning, San Jose again faced the DYHA Phoenix Firebird 99 AAA team and, again, Phoenix bested our boys with the final score being 10 - 0. Although the score differential was the same as the first game against this team, our boys didn't look as intimidated by the speed of play and all the coaches thought we played a better game.

Saturday's second game was against the Arizona Runners. The Sharks scored an early goal in the first, but penalty trouble kept us from going on the offensive. That one goal stood alone until late in the third period when Arizona, with their net empty and six attackers on the ice, put the puck past the San Jose netminder with 18 seconds remaining in the contest. This tie gave the Sharks a 1 - 0 - 2 record which was enough to seed us first going into the single elimination semi-finals.

In the semi-final game on Saturday evening, the Sharks faced the Phoenix Firebirds 00 team. Phoenix made some adjustments to combat the Sharks systems resulting in a much closer contest than the previous day. In the end, however, the Sharks emerged with a 3 - 1 victory, earning a berth in the championship game on Sunday.

The Sunday morning championship game against the Arizona Runners could not have been a harder fought battle. The Runners would open the scoring at the midpoint of the first. The Sharks fought through the fatigue, in this, their seventh game in three days to bring the score even in the second. The Sharks like a fast pace of play and the third period was no exception with a lot of good opportunities at both ends of the ice. San Jose Sharks scored a goal with over just 2 minutes remaining in the game which sealed the victory and the championship!

This was the first tournament win for the Sharks Pee Wee AAA Minor 2000 team and kudos goes out to Phil Huyhn and the whole coaching staff for all their hard work in bringing the team to this level!

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