The Haverhill Squirt 1 team won the 21st annual Larry Fournier Hockey Tournament in Newburyport by beating Newburyport in an overtime shootout.
After taking a 2-0 lead over Newburyport, the Clippers came back late in the March 8 game to tie Haverhill, 2-2. The game went into a five-minute, sudden-death overtime, which still did not determine a winner, so the game ended with a shootout. It was clinched by the final shooter for Haverhill. The Haverhill Squirt 1's outscored Newburyport, 2-1, in the shootout to nab the 4-3 victory.
The two teams met the night before the championship game in a must-win game for Haverhill. Newburyport's record in the first rounds of play secured them a spot in the finals, and Haverhill defeated the Clippers, 3-0, to set up the rematch for Saturday's championship.
Prior to notching back-to-back wins against Newburyport, the Haverhill Squirt 1's battled Pentucket to a 1-1 tie and defeated Triton, 3-2.
This was the second tournament championship for the team this season. In January, they won the January Thaw Tournament held in Dartmouth, N.H. where they won all four of their games against Lebanon, N.H., Hanover, N.H. and Winthrop, Mass. They defeated Winthrop a second time in the finals, 5-2.
The tournament is held annually in Newburyport in memory of Larry Fournier, a local hockey legend, assistant coach and role model. Fournier, who is a member of the Massachusetts Coaches Hall of Fame, lost his battle with cancer in 1987. This year, the tournament spanned 11 days and brought 46 teams from 11 divisions with more than 600 players to the ice.
