With the perennial Fourth Annual Lake City Hockey Classic teachers versus students game head-to-head matchup tilting at two games to one in the students’ favour, this year, the teachers were desperately seeking a win.
The students — Lake City secondary’s female hockey players — crushed all hope of that happening in dramatic fashion, potting the winning goal in sudden-death overtime to edge the teachers, 7-6, and to go up three to one in the series.
“They’re pretty pushy,” Falcons’ player Naddie Hordiuk said of her teachers.
“But it’s really a lot of fun,” added her teammate, Cassie Hoffman.
Students from LCSS piled into the Cariboo Memorial Recreation Complex last Wednesday filling the stands in anticipation of the annual matchup.
But it was the teachers who struck first as Terry Duff and Mike Wilson gave the teachers an early 2-0 lead.
The girls, however, answered back with both Callissa Broomfield and Alexis Hemond finding the twine on teachers’ netminder, Morley Wilson.
Deadlocked at 2-2 in the second period the teachers extended their lead to two goals. Grant Gustafson scored first, before Duff added his second on student goaltender Bailey Schick to put the teachers up 4-2.
The students, again, evened it up at 4-4 after Sarah Austin and Broomfield, with her second, both scored on a visibly tiring teacher squad. Duff would collect a hat trick with just over two minutes left in the period to send the teachers up 5-4 heading into the final frame.
There, Broomfield tied it up early for the students, before Alena Mayer scored what appeared would hold up as the game winner. Duff had other plans — taking the puck down the ice with one minute remaining to send the game to overtime.
But Mayer, again, on a setup from Cassie Hogman, repeated her third-period brilliance to give the students the 7-6 win.
LCSS principal Gregg Gaylord, along with several other members of School District 27’s administration, participated in the contest.
He said both staff and students enjoyed the LCSHC.
“The stands were full of enthusiastic fans who cheered all the participants,” he said. “The girls certainly deserved the hard-fought 7-6 overtime win.”
He added the event is a great way to cap off this part of the school year before the holidays.
“It’s a fantastic way to head into the holiday season with a sense of unity in our two-campus community of LCSS.”