Kevin Haberl
Special to the Chief
The Squamish Minor Hockey Association has a team on the brink of earning the league championship banner to hang in the Brennan Park Arena.
The C1 Mad Cows, sponsored by the Valleycliffe General Store, have 12 wins and no losses heading into Saturday's final game of the regular season.
Coach Terry O'Brien is impressed by the work and dedication of his charges. Though generally a small team, their speed and aggressive puck pressure has overwhelmed some of their opponents this year.
"The kids are really working hard every game, and sticking to our game plan. They really try and apply the lessons we work on in our practices. And it really helped that our less dominant players have improved steadily over the year."
Led by the goal scoring of Luke McGuire and Ryan Olsen, the team has managed to dominate some of the weaker teams this year. Goaltending has been a strong point for the Mad Cows. Mitchell Roberts has played every game and has only allowed 22 goals against.
Another factor has been discipline. In this league, a team is awarded a sportsmanship point for each game played with less than eight penalty minutes taken. The Cows have all twelve of their sportsmanship points this year, with only 36 minutes in penalties.
The game on Saturday (Jan. 28) starts at 2:05 p.m. at Brennan Park, against a North Vancouver team. Come out and cheer them on to a perfect season.
