Cambridge Light Blues    8

Oxford Dark Blues            2

In Canada, no athletic pursuit is more sacred than ice hockey. 

This is why Canadian High Commissioner Gordon Campbell was on hand on Saturday 9th March for the ceremonial puck drop at the 93rd annual men’s Varsity ice hockey match.  The storied tradition of Cambridge and Oxford facing off dates back to 1885 and is the oldest ongoing rivalry in the sport’s history. For the captains and the majority of players on both teams, this year’s game represented the final competition of their careers on this scale. 

With Cambridge eager to avenge last year’s bitter Varsity defeat and going in as favourites having won three of their last four matches, captain Thor Richardson said in the dressing room before stepping on the ice, “Think back to October when it all began. Everything since then – all the hard work and the sacrifice – comes down to tonight. We’ve got a chance to be Varsity Champions, and if we play like we know we can, we will win this game. That cup is ours to take.”

And with that, as more than 500 fans looked on, battle commenced. The intensity and ferocity was tremendous from the outset with crushing hits being delivered and bodies flying on both sides.  After almost eight minutes of even play, Oxford’s main sniper snuck behind the defence and scored on a breakaway.  Two minutes later, Cambridge leading goal getter Kyle Maggard sent a booming slapshot from the top of the circle past the Oxford netminder to even the tally, followed immediately by a goal from Thor Richardson to put the Light Blues ahead as the first period drew to a close.

Aware of how strongly Oxford would come out for the start of the second period, the Light Blues’ defence, led by Cambridge’s Player of the Match Bryan Thirsk, looked to shut down the Oxford offence and kept most attacks to the perimetre, which star goaltender Carl Mazurek handled with ease. At the other end of the ice, Oxford was simply unable to provide an answer for the speed and force of Cambridge’s firepower.  After driving around, past, and through Oxford defencemen for the entire period, Maggard and the other Cambridge forwards left the Dark Blues in dismay, scoring five unanswered goals, including one while shorthanded.  The curtain closed on period two with Cambridge leading 7 – 2. 

A year’s worth of training, disciplined play, and strong leadership from captains and coaches Taylor Burns, Luc St. Pierre, and Professor Bill Harris allowed Cambridge to prevent an exhausted and battered Oxford club from rallying any sort of comeback.  The Dark Blues were limited to just 6 shots on net in the third period and no goals, while Oscar Wilsby sealed the game with one final tally in the last minute of the game. 

Varsity victories do not come without personal sacrifice.  Defenceman Matt Harris played with a broken rib after being hit by a car two days before the match and captain Thor Richardson played the second half of the game with a broken wrist following a hard collision. These and other cuts and bruises are the medals of champions. When interviewed after the game, Cambridge captain Thor Richardson said, “This was undoubtedly our best game of our season.  We had a job to do and we went out there and did it.  Every guy rose to the challenge and gave it his all.  I couldn’t be more proud of the guys right now.”

Perhaps the pinnacle moment of the event was when, cup in hand, Richardson and the rest of the men in Light Blue skated towards the vocal and loyal Cambridge supporters.  The deafening cheer of victory and elation that followed reverberated through the arena and will not soon be forgotten by players and fans alike.

The Men’s Blues started an amazingly victorious Varsity weekend for Cambridge, with the Women’s Blues and Eskimos also winning, which is the first time in the history of Cambridge ice hockey that the Light Blues have captured all three titles.