The Haie was a dominating team during the 2011-12 UHB season. It capped off a brilliant season in which it led start to finish, by defeating the defending champs for the cup.
Along the way, the Haie, which is Sharks in German, set many season and weekly records, one of which was an eight-week winning streak.
They say goaltending is the key to winning championships and The Haie certainly had that. Jonathan Quick, Mike Smith and Antti Niemi were solid all season long for the club.
On offense, Marian Gaborik, Phil Kessel and Matt Moulson were the big guns that opponents had to contend with.
The Haie built a strong team with the draft but did make some transactions to fine tune their lineup. In all, the team made three trades involving the following players:
- traded Ryan Kesler to CHC for Marian Gaborik
- traded P.K. Subban & Ray Emery to CHC for Loui Eriksson & Mathieu Garon
- traded Derek Stepan & Jimmy Howard to Seeing Stars for Ryan Kessler & Antti Niemi
Because the club finished first overall in the regular season, The Haie received a bye in the first round. In the second round, the team went up against CHC, which it defeated easily, 9-3. This set up a finals matchup with the defending UHB champion, Texas Tornado.
It was a hard-fought series but in the end, the Haie swam circles around the Tornado, winning 7-6 and taking home the cup.
Congratulations to The Haie.
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