CORRECTION: Big Horns captain James Floyd was previously listed in this article with an incorrect last name. The online version of the article has since been corrected. The Gazette regrets the error.
Dalhousie Memorial Arena was all orange as the last few seconds ticked off the clock in a game that featured lots of goals, a squid and a record amount of money raised for the IWK Health Centre.
The Trojans, decked primarily in orange, won the seventh annual Dalhousie Residence Charity Face-off by a final score of 6 – 2 March 10 over the red-adorned Big Horns. But the real winner was the IWK.
This year a record $31,500 was raised in the charity event. The Dal residences’ goal of raising over $100,000 in five years was reached, and all parties involved were extremely pleased with their efforts.
“When Matt [Robinson, the residence life manager at Howe Hall,] came by the bench and showed me the paper that said $31,500, I was stunned. It’s unbelievable that we raised that much money,” said Trojans coach Joe Garnett.
The game itself was very exciting. The Trojans came out and dominated the Bighorns physically, quickly breaking through on the power play 2:12 into the first period when John Murray redirected Ryan Oakley’s point shot to get his team on the board.
Later, the Trojans’ Alex Berry put on a hitting clinic with two crunching hits in a row to put a stamp on his team’s first period dominance. However, Berry was later ejected from the game in the third period for hitting from behind.
Big Horns’ captain James Floyd attempted to give his team some life in the second period throwing a big open ice hit. Unfortunately for him it was deemed a hit to the head and put his team down a man, giving the momentum back to the Trojans. They capitalized right after the penalty had expired via Matt Bartley’s backhand, making the score 2 – 0.
The game picked up after that. The Trojans got into penalty trouble and the Bighorns finally beat goalie Isaac da Silva with 7:35 remaining in the period through Charles Vlasic’smarker. Chris Dubois then scored his first of the night to restore the Trojans’ two-goal lead, but it was short-lived as Stephen Edwardsquickly responded for the Big Horns at 4:57 to go, leaving his side down by a goal, 3 – 2.
Garnett said his team needed a wake-up call.
“The second period was a lot more open and we got sloppy, played some stupid hockey and took some bad penalties,” he said. “I was proud of the boys, though, they went into the dressing room and they figured it out themselves, and obviously they did a good job, blowing the game wide open in the third.”
The Trojans did exactly that in the final period, scoring three unanswered goals. Dubois got a shorthanded goal at 12:49 to go for his second on the night, captain Phil Moreau added his team’s fifth to ice it two minutes later, and Mike McCann added salt to the wound scoring the sixth and final goal with eight minutes left to play.
Risley Hall president Brittany Avery insists the final result never really mattered.
“We were never focused on winning, we just went out to have fun and raise a lot of money for a great cause, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Moreau was named player of the game for the Trojans, while Edwards received the same honour for the losing side. Both of them had a goal and an assist for their respective teams.
The highlight of the third period was, weirdly enough, a squid being thrown onto the ice by a Trojan fan. It cost the fan’s team a delay of game penalty, but they enjoyed the lighthearted moment nonetheless with a few players posing by the squid for pictures.
This was the Trojans’ second straight charity face-off victory and fourth consecutive residence victory when you consider the fall soccer matches.
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