This week we had three games on the schedule with the rare Wednesday night game thrown our way.
As a western boy in his first time out east in the Maritimes, its exciting to see some new cities and check out some new barns (rinks), but on Wednesday’s it wasn’t a new city, it was my first taste of our big cross campus rivals with STU, in the Battle of the Hill. I must say it’s the shortest road trip I’ve ever had, to play an away game. Just a couple minute jaunt down the hill and boom you’re already at the old Lady Beaverbrook Rink. I was in shock, to say the least, when I saw that the end wall of the rink was… well a wall, full of ads to the top of where the glass normally would be. That was a treat for the eyes for sure.
It was a great game by the boys sending home 5 goals for the 5-1 win over our rivals. Bretton Stamler and our captain Kyle Bailey each with a pair of veteran goals to lead the way. Stams would have had the hat trick if he could get some mustard on that muffin. A few pretty sick goals out there to top things off. Shayne Wiebe with some outside speed and a nifty pass cross crease to Stamler for his first of the game, and then we had Bailey and Chris Culligan working the give and go for a hot tally to finish the game off. Great effort by the boys then we headed out for a little post game treat at one of our awesome sponsors, Boston Pizza.
On Friday we were on the buss out to Moncton where we had a tough 5-1 loss, and had a couple tough injuries to top things off. Bails and Jonathan Harty connected for our goal, which was another shorthanded goal for the boys. Harty might not be the prettiest looking guy on the ice, but he sure gets the job done and a lot more, get me fired up when I see him mixing it up out there and throwing the body around. Not sure what he was doing around their net on the penalty kill but we’ll take it.
Saturday nights game at the AUC was quite possibly one of the most bizzare games I’ve ever been a part of. Just a tough start to the game, we found the boys down 6-1 and looking like it was a lost cause from there, but I love the resilience, passion, and “hardcore” mentality in our room. With some outstanding performances and displays of heart we clawed our way back to tie things up at 7 goals a piece. In the midst of this huge comeback, it was great to the #44 Stefan Salituro out there. For a guy who hasn’t got to play much this year he stepped up in a big way, with his first goal and it was a beauty, a quick release in the slot, no chance for the tender there. Dion Campbell also had a beauty of a goal, turning the jets on to roast the dman wide and walking in for a nice breakaway goal. It was a big game for Dion in many reasons as he got to have the Special Olympics floor hockey team that he works with come out for a ceremonial puck drop before the game and come and hangout with us in the dressing room after the game. It was a pretty neat experience getting to meet those athletes and it brought a smile to our faces in the room. Good luck to those guys and girls when they head out west to Alberta looking for a gold medal in February. We ended up losing the game 8-7 in the final minutes of the game, but there were some huge things taken from the game and some things that will help us down the road as we host Nationals in march.
Beauty of the Week: The beauty of the week has to go to Dion Campbell for his work with the Special Olympics floor hockey team, and setting up the pretty awesome experience for them at our game and to come hang out with us in the dressing room. He also kinda looks like Tom Cruise, who you may have heard of, making Dion my beauty of the week.
CIS Nationals Countdown: 58 Days
