FAHA Knights Bring Home the Hardware
FAIRBANKS — The Fairbanks Amateur Hockey Association Knights Tier 3 PeeWee (age 12 and younger) picked the right time of year to play its best hockey of the season.
The team brought home the championship trophy from the Alaska State Hockey Association 2013 PeeWee C State Tournament last weekend with a hard-fought win against the Anchorage Hockey Association Comets.
In three tournaments in the regular season — The Turkey Shootout, Fairbanks Fest Bantam D and the President’s Day Invitational — the FAHA squad had finished in the runner-up position. In the final tournament of the season, the Knights were able to keep up their intensity, overcome injuries to three players and went undefeated to claim the state title.
The Knights opened the tournament with four round-robin wins against the Homer Glacier Kings (3-2), and three shutouts against the AHA Comets Green (5-0), the Palmer Pioneers-Ketterman (7-0), and the Kenai Ice Hawks (10-0) to earn a top seed into the semifinals. The Knights skated to a hard-fought 4-2 win against the Homer Glacier Kings in the semifinals and defeated the AHA Comets 6-3 in the title contest.
The state championship roster features goaltender Garrett Simmons, defensemen Carson Coiley, Dylan Tompkins, Amy Hughes, Jesse Keith, Jacob Strle, and Clayton Stevens; and forwards Aidan Grogan, assistant captain, Matias Szumigala, assistant captain, Isabel Hughes, Stephen Trujillo, Daniel Parsons, Deondric Henderson, Travis Brase, Antonio Szumigala and captain Brandon Groesbeck.
The Knights are coached by Arthur Hughes with Gerald Hughes, Kevin Coiley and David Szumigala serving as assistants. The Knights are managed by Ellen Daley.
In six tournament games, the Knights scored 35 goals on 200 shots and held their opponents to 83 shots and only seven goals. Simmons earned the tournament’s Goalie MVP Award. The Knights finished the season 34-8-4 with every player on the team earning a point during the state tournament, and every player scoring at least one goal during the season.
