By: Jason Valladares
What better way to raise money for a charity event than through a good old hockey game?
On Jan. 31, the college’s Pembroke campus held its annual student-staff hockey game at the Pembroke Memorial Centre.
It was a no-contest match for the women’s student team as they defeated the women’s staff 6-0, despite their opponents pulling out all the stops in the last minute of play by thrusting all 11 staff members on the ice.
“My skates are older than them,” Christine Summers, a financial aid officer, said jokingly as she rotated off for a substitution.
First-year outdoor naturalist student Julie Ethier, 19, scored a hat trick and was on both sides of the ice for the duration of the game. She said it was her first time playing in the event and she had “loads of fun.”
There was lots of chest-thumping during the men’s teachers huddle as “1-2-3, students suck!” was heard minutes before the puck dropped.
The men’s game started off fast – the first goal by the staff was scored two minutes into the first period. There was lots of back and forth action with both sides trading the lead throughout the duration of the game.
Murray Kyte, academic manager at the Pembroke campus, scored the winning goal via a penalty short during the final minute of the last period, leading the staff to a 7-6 victory over the students.
“I went to my goalie and asked him where I should shoot and he said top right-hand corner,” Kyte said. “We won the last seven games so I think the expectations were running high.”
“This is probably the best college team I’ve played against due to the fact that they actually played as a team and it made it very hard for us,” said Dominic Chenard, 46, who was goaltender for the Algonquin faculty.
Dale Lloyd, a spectators, said, “It was good game, actually, and it was a lot of fun. I thought the students needed to play a little bit harder and they would’ve won.”
“I think they got too tired because there were not as many players (for substitutions),” Lloyd said.
The background event to the game was a walk-a-thon to raise money for the Spread the Net Campaign with the total money raised at an estimated $2000. The male students have yet to win a game at the annual hockey event having lost the last seven years to the staff.