Howard Huskies 16UAA & 18UAA Advance to USA Hockey National Tournaments

The Howard Huskies Ice Hockey club is proud to announce that the Midget U16AA and U18AA teams won their Maryland State titles for 2013 and are advancing to USA Ice Hockey Nationals.

The Huskies Midget U16AA team defeated the Montgomery Blue Devils for the Maryland State title and are headed to Troy, Michigan on April 3rd. The U16AA team had not beaten the Blue Devils all year until game 2 of the best of 3 series. It all came down to game 3, winning 5-4 at Montgomery despite being short handed the last 30 seconds of the game. This is the first year in the history of the Howard Huskies that any 16UAA team made it to USA Hockey Nationals.

The Huskies Midget 18UAA team is headed to Hartford, Connecticut after defeating the Tri City Eagles for the Maryland State title. This trip will be the 4th in 5 years for the Midget 18UAA team. Their season also came down to a game 3 in a best of 3 series. Both the series winner and game 1 were won by the Huskies in overtime, making for an extra exciting win. The game 3 title games were played back to back on March 10, 2013, making for a busy day for Bud Buonato, President of the Howard Huskies and Head coach of both teams.  "It's a great experience for the kids. They get a chance to compete against teams from all over the country who have qualified, and they're getting a chance to play hockey in April," said Buonato.  The Huskies are extremely proud of the hard work and
dedication of all players and coaches.

A sendoff party to help with travel costs will be held at The Green Turtle in Columbia (8872 McGaw Rd) on Monday, March 25 if you want to help send the Howard County Huskies off to the Nationals stage; Green Turtle will generously donate 10% of the entire day’s sales to the teams.  Additionally, they are raffling off a 2011 Jordan Staal autographed Winter Classic Penguins Jersey (drawing April 1 $5/tx); tickets are available from players or at Green Turtle.  The
16UAA team has a fundraiser up on line http://www.gofundme.com/29ybh4 

County executive Ken Ulman  and Councilman Calvin Ball visited with both
teams on Tuesday March 19, presenting a proclamation naming  April 3, 2013 Howard Huskies Day in Howard County.

Team rosters: 16UAA:  Kurt Barsotti, Aidan Bittenger-Esser, Tim Blount, Will Davis, Josh Godbold, Kevin Green, Griffin Hinkle, Phillip LoPresto, Kevin Murphy, Derek Nadeau, Doug Noonan, Ben Peters, Hayden Seay, Dominic Sesto, C J Shaw, Matt Taylor, Michael Wiser, Daniil Zeller, Michael Zerhusen. 
Head Coach Bud Buonato   Asst Coach Mike Blount

18UAA:  Taylor Abell, Casey Carpenter, Tim Carson, T. J. Clingerman, Evan Davis, Matt Dean, Jansen Earle, K. C. Elliott, Jack Finn, Charlie Harrison, Sean Kreps, Benson Lieberman, Jarek Milauskas, Tucker Plunkert, Brandon Potter, Derek Potter, Dylan Shoen, Bobby Tibbs,  Jake Valenze  Head Coach Bud Buonato Asst Coaches John Buba, Ron Potter

Howard County Youth Hockey Club will begin tryouts in April for the 2013-2014 season. Please visit www.HowardHuskies.org for more information.