Plenty of offence at Oldtimers Hockey Challenge Classic

There was no shortage of offence or entertainment for fans attending the annual Oldtimers Hockey Challenge Classic, held at the Takhini Arena on Sunday.

There was no shortage of offence or entertainment for fans attending the annual Oldtimers Hockey Challenge Classic, held at the Takhini Arena on Sunday.

In total 24 goals were scored between the Whitehorse Hairball Rats hockey team and the Legendary Hockey Heroes squad over the course of the three periods.

The Hockey Heroes ended up winning the contest by a score of 17-7.

The arena wasn’t quite sold out, but fans packed both sides and many even crowded around the boards to get a closer look at the action.

“It is always successful,“ said chairman of the event Art Birss. “I think it gives people in the community an opportunity to see some of the legends of hockey.

To see these guys come in here from the NHL and lots of them live a long ways away from here and they make quite an effort to come up here and play.“

Before the start of the game an announcement was made that because of bad weather conditions in the Toronto and Montreal areas, several players on the Legendary Hockey Heroes squad were unable to attend.

Those players included Cliff Ronning, Gaston Gingras, Rod Black and Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Bill Smith.

The Hairball Rats ended up lending goalie Mike Hawkins to the Hockey Heroes for the game.

It didn’t take the Legendary Hockey Heroes long to get on the board in the contest, snapping a shot past Hairball Rats goalie Glen Traverse at just under the 18 minute mark of the game.

The Hockey Heroes added to the lead not long after, scoring again after Traverse made the initial stop, but couldn’t control the rebound, which was put in with around 12:40 left in the first frame.

After the Hockey Heroes scored once more to make it 3-0, the Hairball Rats finally netted a goal of their own.

The goal was tallied after the Whitehorse player gained possession of the puck from behind the net and centred it to a teammate who wasted little time putting it past Hawkins.

The crowd cheered as the red light behind the net went on.

Before the period was over, the Hockey Heroes added three more goals in around a four minute time span to close out the first with the score being 6-1.

During the first intermission Legendary Hockey Heroes Michael Burgess sang ‘Amazing Grace’, while being accompanied on the ice by figure skaters from the Arctic Edge Skating Club.

The song was dedicated to the Canadian troops serving overseas.

Former Edmonton Oiler great Glen Anderson opened up the scoring for the Legendary Hockey Heroes in the second period, snapping a hard wrist shot by the glove hand of Traverse.

A couple more goals resulted in the Hairball Rats trailing by a score of 9-1 at the halfway point of the period.

It was at this point that the local Call to Recycle Tykes’ hockey team came out onto the ice, as part of the event, to take over for the Hairball Rats.

The crowd cheered as the players skated out.

With the on-ice legendary hockey players moving in slow motion, the tykes wasted little time, scoring within the first minute they were on the ice. The crowd roared as the puck went in the net.

Not long afterwards the tykes poked in their second goal.

After adding a third goal and with only 10 seconds left on the ice the tykes hurried down towards the goal for one last rush.

The team didn’t disappoint, scoring just a few seconds later to bring the Hairball Rats right back into the contest with just under seven minutes remaining in the period.

The great play of the tykes seemed to inspire the Hairball Rates, who scored just over a minute later after they left the ice to make the score 9-6.

The goal was scored after a player on the Hairball Rats broke in uncontested and out weighted Hawkins to backhand it over the down and out goalie.

Despite surrendering two more goals to make the score 11-6, the Hairball Rats continued their great play for the remainder of the period.

The team put the pressure on Hawkins, generating a number of shots and forcing the goalie to make a few difficult stops.

At one point the Hairball Rats had three consecutive chances to score, but Hawkins was able to make two nice pad saves, before the third shot missed the net.

A great pass out of the Hockey Heroes’ zone, with only moments to go in the second frame, added one more goal for team to make the score 12-6 heading into the final period.

During the second intermission, individual figure skating programs were performed by two more experienced members of the Arctic Edge Skating Club, which were both a big hit with fans at the event.

The Hairball Rats began the third frame with some jump and not even four minutes into the period they were able to score, making it 12-7 in favour of the Hockey Heroes.

This would be as close as the Hairball Rats would get though and the Hockey Heroes added another four goals before the conclusion of the game to win 17-7.

Additionally the event also helped raise money for local sporting organizations, such as Sport Yukon and Whitehorse Minor Hockey.

Sport Yukon’s Children’s Development Fund was given $3,000, while proceeds from the silent auction and the 50/50 draw were donated to the Whitehorse Minor Hockey League.

Birss said he was pleased with how the event went this year.

“I think it is a great event and I hope it keeps going,“ he said.

“It is great for these guys to give something back to the hockey that they have played for so many years. They did well by it and now they are giving back for the kids, I think it’s great.“

Bryan Trottier was a player on the Legendary Hockey Heroes team and has been participating in the Oldtimers Hockey Challenge for four years now.

He said the players always have a lot of fun taking part in this event.

“For all of us we really enjoy the game, we enjoy getting into the communities and getting a chance to meet the fans around the country,“ he said.

“So for us we always enjoy ourselves, we just want to make it enjoyable for the families coming out to watch us.“

He said that playing with the NHL alumni and meeting new fans are the two best parts about participating in the challenge.

“The biggest thrill is meeting all the new fans that never saw us play, but their parents did, or their grandparents did.

We want to kind of leave a nice flavour in their mouth because they are the next generation of hockey fans or hockey players,“ Trottier said.

“So for us we really get a chance to reconnect with the fans or just connect with some new fans.“

Trottier said he was impressed with how the Hairball Rats played.

“They had a good group of guys,“ he said.

“They had different level of hockey players, but nobody was out to maim anybody.

All and all great guys, gentleman, and at the same time real good hockey people.

They want to raise money for the community and for the right reasons and we support those kinds of efforts.“