Club Hockey teams from Dartmouth, Skidmore, UNH and Holy Cross gathered at Thompson arena this weekend for the 1st Annual Kraev Cup, a tourney named after Club Hockey founder Sasha Kraev '01.
Dartmouth played the first game of the tournament early Sunday morning against a skilled team from Skidmore. Peter Hanbury '03 started the game off well for the Dartmouth Club team by poking home an Alex Tee '03 rebound. After falling behind 3-1, Justin Poitras '02 connected on a pass from Hanbury and Matt Stevenson '04 to pull the Club team within one.
Late in the third, with the Club team trailing 3-2, a breakaway opportunity by Hanbury was thwarted by a misplaced referee's skate. Skidmore put in one more goal, held off a flurry of chances by the Clubbers, and the game ended in a 4-2 lose.
In the second game of the tournament, a strong Holy Cross team faced an even tougher UNH team. UNH came out strong, scoring three first period goals before Holy Cross could respond and finished with a 6-2 win.
The consolation game featured a determined Dartmouth Club team against a physical Holy Cross team. Holy Cross took an early 3-0 lead as the Dartmouth squad appeared tired from the early morning game. Tee helped the team struggle back by scoring an unassisted goal off a strong shot from the top of the circle. The team pulled within one when Julian Saltman '04 blocked a shot at the blueline and Hanbury picked up the puck and scored on the ensuing breakaway. Once again, fatigue hurt the team as it gave up three more goals to lose 6-3 to Holy Cross.
Poitras, the team's captain, said, "I feel we played strong in the tourney, and showed a lot of heart against some extremely talented teams. A couple of lucky bounces and we could have won the whole thing".
The weekend ended with a hard fought championship which UNH won by a 4-2 margin. After the game, Club Hockey President Poitras, Vice President Hanbury, and Treasurer Jon Webster '04 presented the Wildcats with the 1st Annual Kraev Cup trophy, and a new tradition had been started at Dartmouth.
