Men’s Blues put in a strong show at National Championships
With the regular season over, the Oxford University Blues Ice Hockey Team (the men’s contingent of the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club) had finished mid-table in a strong division with the likes of London Universities Union and Cambridge University powering their way to the top of the table. Not surprisingly, the team were ranked lower than most entering the Division 1 National Championships – the highlight of every university ice hockey player’s calendar. Despite the league prediction, the Oxford team were in high spirits at pre-nationals training with a set game plan and a strong, condensed roster.
Entering the weekend, the Blues knew they would have their backs against the wall having seen the pre-released group’s opponents – the mighty London Dragons, hometown team Sheffield Bears and the undefeated St Andrews Typhoons.
Caption: Opening faceoff against the Northumbria Kings – a 5-1 win for the Dark Blue
Despite the draw of the bright lights of Sheffield, the team were ready to go from the outset with first puck-drop against the Northumbria Kings. The Kings, whose second team had narrowly stolen a win from the Oxford Women’s Blues two weekends prior, were not to experience such a favourable result and ended up conceding five goals in a win for the Dark Blues.
Up next was the Sheffield Bears, a team who have historically dominated the British University Ice Hockey Association division 1 league (BUIHA Div1). Despite the incredible effort to fight for every puck battle, the OUIHC men could not compete with the well-drilled Sheffield team who were efficient moving the puck up the ice and clinical in front of goal netting half a dozen past the Oxford goaltender.
Going 1 win, 1 loss into Saturday night, the Blues knew they had a shot at a semi-final spot if they secured at least one win in their last two games against London and St Andrews. Disregarding the pressure, the Saturday night was chilled with the team adopting an unexpected pre-game routine of bowling. Hockey players worldwide practice weirder superstitions/“routines” and as it turned out the Oxford lads were in the lead for the majority for their next game the following morning. Superstitions aside, the men in Dark Blue played a perfect game against the speedy northern team and it took a great individual effort from St. Andrews superstar Chase McCarthy to salvage a point for the group leaders.
Caption: Jesus College student Ben Verboom leading the Oxford attack
With league predictions blown out of the water and after a number of St Andrews players claiming it was the best game they’ve played in all year, the Blues were quietly confident entering the final group game against the dominant London Dragons. Only a week previously, the Dragons had scorched the Northern Conference winners, the Nottingham Mavericks, in a 15-3 display of relentless physicality and ruthless offensive play.
The game started full throttle with the both teams utilising their larger forwards in relentless fore-checking. However, it was the men in blue who opened the scoring thanks to Winnipeg native Alex Bergin with a quick accurate shot to the top corner of the net. The lead was not held for long with London netting consecutive goals to turn the game on its head for a 3-1 London lead.
The Oxford team had become practiced in resilient play against bigger opponents and this was no exception. The Blues game out strong after the restart and a powerful slapshot from Naeem Bardai blew past the Dragon goaltender into the roof of the net. Despite the Dragons netting another goal, capitalising on Oxford’s lack of defensemen (i.e. none) at the tournament, the Blues team came up big yet again with an excellent passing play from the captains resulting in a textbook backdoor goal cutting the lead in half. This was shortly followed by a screened wrist shot by Slovakian forward Tomas Alfoldi to tie the game with emphatic celebrations from the Oxford bench. However, London demonstrated why they had been crowned BUIHA Champions the week before and pushed for a winner in the final minute. To Oxford’s dismay, the Dragons top line duo of Captain Kalle Uusitalo and Andrew Bulovsky connected for the final goal despite an outstanding acrobatic effort from Oxford goalie Chris Edwards. The game ended dramatically with a 5-4 win for London meaning Oxford missed out on a semi-final place.
Caption: The all-forward Oxford University Blues
Despite the heart-breaking exit from the tournament, the guys can look back on the weekend with pride. A number of outstanding team performances meant that the Blues were in with a shot at semi-final spot right until the last.
With the season over, attention turns towards next season. While refocusing our gaze on academic matters, the team will prepare for out of season training to condition themselves over the summer ready to start the 2015-16 season the right way. Stay tuned for updates by following us @OUIHCmensblues on Twitter and liking our Facebook page (Oxford University Ice Hockey Club).