DANBURY, CT – With an overtime goal potted by Carter Shinkaruk, the Danbury Hat Tricks achieved city history by notching their 11th consecutive victory. The win establishes a new Danbury professional hockey record for longest streak, besting the 2015-16 Danbury Titans’ old record of 10. It also puts them in first place in the FPHL East.
The Hat Tricks’ resiliency has been a major contributing factor to their success. Four of their 11 wins over the course of this streak have required comebacks at some point over the course of the game. Six wins game by two goals or fewer. Players have been promoted, traded, signed, and yet…the team continues to win.
Simply put, this stretch of hockey has been a roller-coaster ride in every sense.
“We feel very good about our team heading into Christmas,” head coach Billy McCreary noted. “We took our lumps early on in the season, dug in, and got to work. So the results we’ve been getting of late are a testament to the character in the locker room and the process we go through on a daily basis.”
For McCreary, the milestone win has a special significance.
“My grandfather William Edward McCreary passed away on November 25th, just two days into our streak. At his celebration of life I was gifted a hat he wore when he played for the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters. He went on to coach for the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks, as well as having a lengthy playing career. Nine games later the Danbury Hat Tricks are setting records, and I am wearing the hat he wore. This is my first year coaching professionally. Prior to this I’ve been a player/assistant coach in the SPHL for the Huntsville Havoc, the hockey director for the New Jersey colonials last season, as well as coach for Selects Hockey in the spring and summer working with players who have gone on to play division I, Major Junior, and internationally with US and Canadian National teams.
“It’s a special group in that room,” McCreary added. “We want to continue to strengthen those bonds down the stretch.”
“It feels great to put together a winning streak of this length against a bunch of different teams and over a month long,” said alternate captain Phil Bronner, who has 14 points in the streak. “The Titans team we just passed had tons and tons of talent. As a new expansion team, this streak has given us swagger, and the expectation going into each game that we’re going to win it.”
“This team’s closeness and camaraderie off the ice helps us on the ice, and I think you can start to see that now,” Bronner pointed out. “We look forward to continuing to build towards a championship.”
The winning streak record includes all professional franchises to have played in Danbury: Titans (2015-17), Whalers, (10-15), Mad Hatters (08-09) and Trashers (04-06). The New England Stars also played a lower level of semi-professional hockey in Danbury in 2006-07, winning 22 consecutive games in the now-defunct North Eastern Hockey League.
Special thanks to Casey Bryant and offiicial FPHL media release
Photos courtesy of official FPHL release
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