Squirt Flyers beat Black Sabres, become Super Sunday champs

The Squirt Flyers defeated the Black Sabres, 3-1, to win the Amherst Youth Hockey Squirt House championship. Members of the team, pictured from left, are: bottom in front - Bryan Cowing; kneeling - Anthony Macchia, Dean Battaglia, Peter Masters, Eric Bailey, JP Williams, Mark Christy and James Mueller; standing, top row - Austin Ballard, Nicholas Schiappa, Conor Mulvey, Austin Gallagher, Amir Gulati, Trevor Shaw and Gregory Sibick; top row - assistant coach Michael Gallagher, head coach Daryle Shaw and assistant coach Mark Christy.

The Squirt Flyers won a hard fought championship game, 3-1 against the Black Sabres on Super Sunday, March 25, at the Pepsi Center.

The Flyers lit up the scoreboard first when Gregory Sibick outskated the Black Sabres' defense, grabbed a sleek pass from Amir Gulati, and lobbed one in between the pipes.

The remainder of the first period was marked with tight defense from the Flyers and Black Sabres as each team skated hard in fierce end-to-end action.

The second period went scoreless as Flyers' goalie Bryan Cowing and Black Sabres' goalie Ryan Ruggerio shut down the competition. The goalies had numerous key saves throughout the game.

Momentum changed in the third period when the Black Sabres scored an early goal on a breakaway by Tom Roesch. Roesch took a perfect pass from Henry Frome and made a tight wrist shot into the Flyers' net for his team's only goal. It was a wake-up call for the Flyers as three minutes later, Trevor Shaw sliced one in from the blue line, putting his team ahead by one goal.

Two minutes later, Mark Christy sealed the game for the Flyers on a rebound shot that flew over the netminder's shoulder putting his team in the sweet spot of a 3-1 advantage.

The Flyers last game of the season truly reflected the team effort that brought the players to Super Sunday.