The KleenTec A Squirts recently captured second place in the David Jacobsen Memorial Tournament at the Albert Lea City Arena.

Starting out in prime time Friday evening against a strong team from Marshall, the locals played a tremendous game with great effort and teamwork prevailing with a 7-2 win. Leading the way for Albert Lea was team captain Cody Anderson with a goal and two assists. First-year player Levi Hacker also made a major contribution with two goals. Also scoring their first goal of the season were Madi Passingham, Luke Grossman and Brady “Animal” Falk. Playing well and collecting assists were Aaron Laite, Cole Sorenson, Madi Passingham and David Enstad.

On Saturday, the home town team faced their arch-rivals, a team that had beaten them twice already this season, Austin. After a scoreless first period, Albert Lea kicked it up a notch and dumped in four goals on stunned Austin team. Austin did manage to get on the scoreboard with a meaningless goal late in the third period, but this game was decided well before Austin broke up goalie Nick Dulas’ shutout bid. Albert Lea won 6-1. Captain Tyler Brackey scored five goals. In addition to playing a very strong game defensively, Eric Carlson also got his second goal of the weekend. Picking up assists were Anderson, Ben Enger, Enstad and Sorenson.

In Sunday’s championship game, the locals found themselves up against a highly skilled North St. Paul team that had not given up a goal the whole tournament. Albert Lea battled hard and managed to put up three goals, but North St. Paul was too much for the young Albert Lea team to handle. Scoring for Albert Lea in the first period was Anderson assisted by Eric. In the third period Albert Lea got goals from Grossman and Hacker and with Taylor Matz collecting an assist. Despite battling illness, Darien Weigle played very well in the title game, facing 38 shots. Jordan Crawford played a strong, physical defensive game all weekend for Albert Lea.