Coach Brian McSparron commented after the weekend, that the team achieved their pre-season #1 goal, to win the Savannah Hockey Classic. After the passing of Coach Greg, it was easy to pick the winning of this tournament as our first priority since he loved the city of Savannah and all it offers the players. Plus, our graduating seniors have never won in Savannah – this was a double reason to win the tournament. The team was very focused and determined. It was a very great experience for the first year players and a better experience for our graduating players. All weekend we were flying with speed and being aggressive with a smothering defense that gave us an easy victory against FSU and a rewarding win against Georgia.

Some fine tuning in the second period in both games allowed us to get into our rhythm and has made us successful all year. The coaching staff adjusted, during the first break in both games, to the varying style of our competitors. In the Georgia game, the scoring of our first goal at the end of the first period, settled us down and gave us more confidence to win the game and tournament. The key to the Georgia win, was our deeper bench that allowed multiple substitutions, keeping fresh legs on the ice to allow us to maintain our speed throughout three periods. I told the players during the second period intermission, that if we can score on the power play starting the third period, we would swing the momentum in our favor. To my surprise, not only did we score the power play goal but another goal thirteen seconds later. Georgia could never recover.

To show the depth of this squad, we had 18 players score a goal this weekend. All 30 players played this weekend which was one of my goals. I wanted everyone to experience the Savannah tournament. The offensive stars of the weekend were Brendan O’Leary and Albert Park – both players were fantastic and aggressive. Defensive player of the weekend was B.J. Stapleton. Goalie Maxx Lucas was exceptional in goal against Georgia.

I’m real proud of the players for playing as a team to achieve our goals: for the memory of Coach Greg and for the seniors. Congratulations to the All Tournament players, Ryan Fritz, B.J. Stapleton and Maxx Lucas. I also want to thank the Georgia Tech Pep Band for their year long support – especially here in Savannah – as the seventh man on the ice. It was extremely gratifying to have Coach Greg’s father, John, brother, George and wife, Marianne, here in person to present the Stathis Trophy for the Most Valuable Player to Maxx Lucas.