The Dartmouth club hockey team put on a valiant display of textbook-perfect play for all in attendance at Saturday's game against the Massachusetts Maple Leafs at Thompson Arena,but that did not keep a staggering 10-3 loss from becoming reality.
From the drop of the puck to the ring of the buzzer signaling the end of the contest, the clubbers performed to the utmost of their abilities, never letting up for an instant and continuously adapting to each successive challenge posited by the strategizing of the Maple Leafs' extensive coaching staff.
Dartmouth's ability to successfully handle each of their opponents' tactics made it clear that this was not just another run-of-the-mill club hockey fiasco; this game was something special.
The 10-3 loss did little to deter the clubbers' spirits, as collective elation ran high throughout the evening.
Team bruiser Anthony Balsamo's '04's speeches delivered to his team, setting the tone for Dartmouth's prevalent attitude that would endure up to and beyond the scoring of Massachusetts' 10th goal. At the game's conclusion, the still-jubilant clubbers left the Massachusetts Maple Leafs team feeling very confused.
Jamil Batcha '06, the lone dissenter among this unusually happy bunch, expressed a certain level of tear-jerking discontent for his beloved teammates, stating, "We stunk worse than the Green does in the spring, you know when everything is, like, thawing and muddy. I knew it would happen, that's why I didn't play."
But regardless of his absence, Batcha couldn't keep his fellow clubbers down, least of all when each of Dartmouth's three impressive goals were actually scored.
A particularly upbeat Tom Monahan '06 even outdid his two goal-scoring companions with his ecstatic post-goal celebration. Goals were also scored by the less enthusiastic but still incredibly upbeat Jon Landsberg '06 and Darren Gastrock '04.
While the players for both teams managed to stay on impressively friendly terms, the audience itself did not follow suit.
A minor scuffle broke out as the 20 jovial fans in attendance quickly became rowdy and ill-tempered when the lucky Everything But Anchovies pizza was awarded to an empty row of seats on the opposite side of the rink.
The fight escalated but was quickly extinguished when Safety and Security arrived.
The game was also the last one held in Thompson Arena for this year's senior clubbers.
The Big Green home-ice glory days of captain Jon Webster, Julian Saltman, Matt Stevenson, Jerry Wang, Anthony Balsamo and Roy Small have come to an end and will soon move on to greener pastures, but not without some good memories and a final home game that will never be forgotten.
Naturally, sentimentality among these strapping young lads ran high.
Shortly after the game's conclusion, Small, choked up, commented, "It was a great way to go out. I wish I could have been there to see it."
The much more verbose Webster quickly added, between tears of his own, "Skating off of the Thompson Arena ice for the last time brought a rush of memories and emotions. I thought back to all of our intense practices with vomit-inducing drills and all the kids who didn't make the cut. We built a team based more on unity than individual talent with kids from diverse places like Boston and Minnesota. We never did manage to beat the Russians; Canadians; Czechs or even the Eritreans. However, I skated off that ice feeling like a real winner."
