Forest Hill won 5-1 against the upper campus team in the 2015 Washburn Cup hockey game last Friday.
“We always had each other’s back, we pushed, we out worked the other team,” said Kellen Hassencahl, head coach of the Forest Hill team.
Washburn is an annual hockey game between Forest Hill, made up of Rigby and Chatham hall, and the upper campus: Harrington, Vanier, and Holy Cross House. The game took place at the Lady Beaverbrook arena.
“We switched it up from last year. Washburn is supposed to be between upper and lower campus,” said Matty Cripps, co-head coach of the upper campus team. “This year we actually brought that out.”
This year the game featured a player from every residence, meaning all five houses had a player on the ice from their residence. With every house having a player on the ice, the crowd seemed to cheer harder and louder.
“It was pretty fast playing the STU women hockey team. I’ve never played women that high a caliber. It was a fast paced game though,” said second year student Shayne Delaney. “Pretty good hits. Couple of good fights.”
Delaney, a Harrington Hall alumni, suited up for the Forest Hill team. The upper campus team had a lot of interest from people currently living in residence, so Delaney and a few of his friends joined the Forest Hill team. They got some chants saying they were traitors, but the young men were just happy to play hockey.
“It was fun. The boys were accepting,” said Mike Irvine, another Harrington alumni that played for Forest Hill.
The crowd seemed to be having a cheer competition but one chant “F**k You Harrington,” seemed to take the cheer a little too far. The game had a couple of on-ice fights.
“It was a good game, a little different than the last time I played. Not as violent as before,” said Mike Ricketts, the game’s leading scorer.
Some of the past Washburn games were noted for having multiple fights, but the players on the ice were more focused on the game this time. The score was 4-0 in the third period when upper campus got their lone goal sending the crowd into a frenzy, but Forest Hill didn’t take long to answer, silencing the other side.
“I think what really costs us was playing so much of the night in our own end. That caught up to us and it made it hard for us to get any traffic in there end and it made it harder for us to put the puck in the net,” said Nathan DeLong, co-captain of the upper campus team.
Delong and Cripps said that both teams rarely played together and were glad to put on a show for the crowd.
“I think there was a few missed opportunities like any game. Fanned shot on an open netter or a good pass across the ice wasn’t working but when it comes down to it we played well,” said Cripps. “Considering we don’t play together often. It’s a one-time thing we did real well coming together to play together.”
