The NHL isn’t the only act in town as Jr. Sharks have kicked off
their 2005 season
The National Hockey League’s San Jose Sharks isn’t the only Sharks hockey team making a comeback this season.
This weekend, the San Jose Jr. Sharks club hockey team started off its 2005-2006 season by hosting the the 2nd Annual AA/AAA Labor Day Kickoff tournament, held at San Jose’s Logitech Ice and the Fremont Ice Center.
Three Jr. Sharks teams with representatives from the South Valley competed amongst four divisions of thirty-four teams, some travelling from as far as Kansas City, Seattle and Texas.
In the Midget division, the 16U AAA Sharks went 3-2 in the four-day event. The squad beat L.A. Hockey Club (3-1), the Las Vegas Outlaws (1-0) and the L.A. Jr. Kings (3-2). Morgan Hill’s Kyle Dutra scored one of the Sharks’ three goals against the L.A. Hockey Club and Gilroy’s Dominic Woodson scored the Sharks’ only goal against the Outlaws. Woodson scored at the 14:09 mark in the first period and the team managed to hold off the Outlaws for the rest of the game for the win.
The 16U team’s two losses were against the Russell Stover Stars (3-2) and the California Wave (7-0).
In the Bantam division, the ’91 AAA team went 1-1-2 on the weekend. The team beat the Southern California Vipers 8-3, lost to the Las Vegas Outlaws 5-0 and tied the Phoenix Firebirds and the Phoenix Polar Bears both by a score of 2-2.
“We actually did pretty good,” said coach Phil Hazelwood said of his team, which competes at both the AA and AAA level. “In the games we (didn’t win), the other teams scored on power plays and we hadn’t worked on that part of the game yet with special teams.”
Hollister’s Evan Greenwood and Gilroy’s Chas Sudol both had goals for the ’91 Sharks. Greenwood, a center, scored in three of the four games. Sudol had a hat trick against Southern California and another score in the tie game with the Polar Bears.
“(Greenwood) has been with the program for a few years,” Hazelwood said. “Chas has been moved back to defense. This is his first year playing defense so he’s beginning to understand the position and get comfortable back there.”
Morgan Hill’s Marco Gagliardi also suits up for the ’91 team, but he sat out much of the tournament with an injured shoulder, thumb and bruised thigh, Hazelwood said.
This year, the coach anticipates a more competitive season than last, when the team was playing at the Bantam AAA level for the first time and played mostly teams older than it. The squad’s next tournament is in Phoenix in two weeks.
Playing in against several older teams in its pool, the PeeWee ’94 team lost two games and tied one in the PeeWee division. The team lost 6-2 to the Southern California Vipers, 8-1 to the Santa Clara Blackhawks and tied the Jr. Sharks ’93 team.
“All in all, it was a huge victory for us to even be competitive with any of those teams,” said coach Andy Buchanan. “We had strong goal tending to hold those teams to the scores we did.”
Morgan Hill’s Johan Sjoden provided a physical presence the young team needed on the ice.
“He’s a big, strong kid,” said Buchanan of Sjoden, who stands about five inches taller than most of the other players on the ice. “He kind of deflects and keeps the other teams more honest.”
While the Labor Day tournament was mainly an exhibition event to help ease the teams into the season, which runs until early spring, over the course of the next few months the teams will travel all over the country to compete against some of the best clubs youth hockey has to offer. Though it’s a winter sport, Bantam coach Hazelwood believes the popularity of hockey in Northern California is growing, in part because of the NHL’s Sharks. In this year’s NHL draft, former San Jose Jr. Shark forward Brett Sutter, son of current Calgary Flames head coach and general manager Darryl Sutter, went to the Flames in the sixth round.
“More kids moving on to higher levels and the pros that have come from Northern California, so it’s staring to grow,” he said.
