By Donald Bur
For those of you who were not able to attend, you unfortunately missed one of the best sporting events ever to take place in the city of Toronto.
After about five minutes into the first period, Cambridge was leading 2 - 0. It looked like we had put together one of the best teams in a long time. Unfortunately, as they tend to do, Oxford fought back. At the end of the first period it was tied, and by the middle of the second Oxford was leading 3-2. With a bit of an extra effort, Cambridge tied the game again just before the end of the second period.
The first two periods were played without stop time, but because everyone was enjoying the game so much it was agreed to play stop time for the third. The fear of stop time is that we could reach the end of our contracted ice time, with no clear result, and it was certainly a risk in this case since the two teams were clearly closely matched. Worse, it could give Oxford enough time to win. That fear was magnified in the middle of the third when Oxford scored again. Cambridge fought back, but it wasn’t until they pulled their goalie with about a minute to play that we managed to tie the game again.
Sudden death overtime is the only choice for teams facing limited ice time, but its a dangerous choice. Fortunately, we didn’t have long to wait. In the first minute of the overtime period, Cambridge scored again.
This is the eighth annual tournament, and the two teams are now tied at four games apiece - the same score that existed at the end of the third period. I’m sure you will all want to be there next year for the tie breaker.
To take part in the next year's game, please, get in touch with Donald Bur at jdos@rodgers.com.