George Brown men’s hockey team makes it to semi-finals

St. Lawrence Sharks celebrates their win in the George Brown Extramural tournament on Oct 30. | Photo: Steve Cornwall / The Dialog

George Brown’s extramural men’s hockey teams played well but came up short in their first tournament of the year. The George Brown Extramural Hockey Tournament, which took place on Oct. 30 at York University’s Icesports Arena, had eight teams, including two from George Brown College, the Huskies and a team from the Waterfront campus.

In the preliminary round, the Huskies outscored their opponents 14-4, winning twice and advancing to the semi-finals. In their two wins, the Huskies beat Humber Lakeshore 3-1, and crushed the Canadore College Panthers, 11-1. In the semi-finals the Huskies ran into a strong St. Lawrence College Schooners team, and were shutout 1-0.

The Schooners ended up losing 2-1 to another St. Lawrence College team, the Sharks, in the finals.

After the Huskies were eliminated, Chris Pires, an electrical engineering student playing his first game for George Brown, said he was eager to play in another tournament.  “We want to take every tournament title,” he said.

While the results were somewhat disappointing, highlights for Pires included playing in his first college hockey tournament, and a high quality one at that.

George Brown’s Waterfront campus team played hard, but had a short bench and was unable to get a win at the tournament. They were out-scored 6-16, suffering loses to University of Toronto Scarborough, Trent, and tournament finalists, the St. Lawrence Schooners.

Geoff Gordon, who coached both teams, said he, “was proud of the way both GBC teams played.” Gordon noted that he was impressed that the Waterfront team never gave up, despite being undermanned at the tournament.

Assessing the Huskies performance, Gordon said that if the team can gel and play a stronger system game, he feels that “the team will be competing for the Challenger Cup come March.”