Team Members Sean McKaharay Matt Leslie Jeff Pare Bob Merry Radek Horak Keith Horrell Dave Bombardier Chris Yon Rick Cohen Larry Johnson Kris Bough Chris Haynes

Congratulations to the Metro Atlanta Street Hockey Association’s ATLANTA ATTACK Traveling Team on their tournament win in Ocean City, Maryland. Atlanta streethockey teams have not traveled to a national tournament in a long time. MASHA picked Ocean City and the Beach Bash as their comeback into the national tournaments about 6 months ago. MASHA’s Sean McKaharay fielded a team of 12 of MASHA’s best street hockey players. All wanted to go up to Maryland and show the north that there is street hockey in Atlanta and that we can compete on the National level.

The ATTACK started their tournament with a game against Raleigh, North Carolina. The Atlanta guys started out slow and couldn’t get used to the small rink that the tournament was played on. They eventually lost the game 2-0 with 2 lucky goalies for Raleigh. The ATTACK players kept their heads in the tourney because they had a big test against a great Pittsburgh team coming up.

Next round was going to be harder than the first, as the ATLANTA ATTACK faced off against a strong Pittsburgh team. Pittsburgh brought 3 lines and had just come off a win. The Atlanta squad came out of the box with hustle and skill and surprised Pittsburgh on the first shift. After that Chris Haynes showed Pittsburgh that it wasn’t going to be easy as long as he was out there. Atlanta players won every race to the ball and won the game 2-0 with a shutout by Larry “5 Hole” Johnson.

After the first day The ATLANTA ATTACK found themselves in the 3rd seed and feeling very confident about their play. The quarterfinals would be against a Miami team who’s loss was against the defending champions.

The ATLANTA ATTACK showed up to play some big time hockey on Sunday. They started play against Miami the way they ended play against Pittsburgh. Bob Merry showed us that you don’t have to be 18 to play street hockey by popping in 2 goals in that game. The ATTACK played their best game so far beating a great Miami team 4-0. Another shut-out for Larry, and people were starting to worry that they might have to face Atlanta in the finals.

The next game was against the Maryland Phantoms, who had just knocked off the 2nd seed Raleigh. The ATTACK started the game getting 5 penalties to spend most of the first period in the box. With some great defense Atlanta went into the second half of the game up 2-1 only giving up 1 goal on a power play. Atlanta put in an open netter with time expiring to go up 3-1. Then Maryland scored one with 8 minutes to go (Larry HAD that one saved) but Atlanta was not going to let this one slip away and won 3-2….OFF TO THE FINALS!!!.

The finals were not going to be an easy task. We had to face the defending champions. This team was from Maryland and they improved from last year’s tournament. They came into the finals undefeated. The ATLANTA ATTACK struck first and never looked back. Atlanta took a 2-0 lead and knew that they needed more goals to put it out of the reach of Maryland. Maryland scored to make it 2-1 to end the first period. With guns blazing Atlanta put in 2 quick goals to make it 4-1 and the Maryland backs were broken. Atlanta kept their composure after Maryland started to take runs, because that was the only way they could beat THE ATTACK!

All in All, I am proud to call myself a member of the ATLANTA ATTACK squad. The Atlanta team showed determination, respect and great hockey prowess. The Metro Atlanta Street Hockey Association looks forward to sending the ATLANTA ATTACK back to Ocean City NEXT year to defend their championship… so if you want to play keep a weekend open in August of 2006!

Sincerely,

Sean McKaharay

ATLANTA ATTACK player/coach