First, I would like to apologize, on behalf of my prankster of an editor, for the bizarre title my column was given. The only explanation I can fathom is that Henry believed I was writing a Frisbee column, not a hockey one. That being said, I think all there is left to do is to take the advice from one of my buddies, “Embrace the title, and run with it.”
Now, let’s talk hockey. As many of you know, our hockey team played its first, albeit exhibition, game on Sunday. Even though it was an exhibition, our team showed promise, and the outcome meant something even more. On Saturday, the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds came into a packed house at the antichrist Denver University, who was preseason ranked #7 according to USCHO polls, and walked away with a 2-2 tie. After making the trek down I-25 to the unforgiving World Arena, the Thunderbirds got a wake up-call, facing a team that looked better than their #19 pre-season ranking. British Columbia was pushed around by a stronger, smarter, more skilled, and just better-looking Colorado College Tigers team.
Our first line is stacked with Senior Rylan Schwartz, captain William Rapuzzi, and junior Alexander Krushelnyski. Although this line failed to find the back of the net on Sunday, they were making things happen all night, giving the Tigers more and more of the imperative “big MO” (momentum). With the abundance of flow and dangles we saw from this line, one could compare them to the Coneheads line from the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.
If the first line was the Coneheads, our second line was the GAG line. For those of you who don’t know, the GAG line refers to the Goal-A-Game line of New York Rangers Rod Gilbert, Jean Ratelle, and Vic Hadfield, who, combined, averaged more than one goal per game in the 60s and 70s. Scott Winkler, Charlie Taft, and Archie Skalbeck combined to score two of our three goals on Sunday.
Scott Winkler scored the second, and game-winning, goal on a beautiful clapper from about 23 feet. I don’t know what the go-to phrase is for you hockey fans out there when a goal is scored in the upper corner. But Scott went tit, he sniped, top ched, top shelf, or, my personal favorite, he put it where Grandma keeps the cookies. It was sick.
We gave up one measly, shorthanded goal, but otherwise, the team looked primed and ready for a packed house next weekend for homecoming against a solid Clarkson University. Andrew Hamburg will be providing die-hard fans (but probably just Will Thomsen) with free CC hockey jerseys, so come out and show your support!
Alex Woolford
Sports Columnist