Once again two great hockey powers came together to determine hockey supremacy reminiscent of that great Canada-Russia series of 1972, forty-five years ago. This time, however, it was the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ottawa against an Esprit de Corps Commandos team. The Russian team, known as the “Red Machine”, not able to field an entire team within its own staff, augmented their roster with quality players from Toronto, an A level team known as the “Kremlin”, as well as a couple of players from south of the border. The Commandos, facing a similar problem, gathered players from where they could, including some from the General Officers/Flag Officers (GOFOs) team from the Department of National Defence, their longtime nemesis. I guess the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
This was a quality game with good skaters and puck handlers on both teams, albeit the Russians having more depth on their bench. The crowd was large for this type of game and was clearly Russian in the majority. The Commandos opened the scoring but it was soon evened up by the end of the first. By the end of the second period, the Russians were ahead 2 to 1 as the players got a rest and the ice got resurfaced. Within the first minute of the third period, the Commandos evened the score and with 10 minutes to go, got the go ahead marker. It came down to the wire when in the last minute the Russians pulled their goalie but it was for naught as the Commandos put in an empty netter to put the game out of reach. Final score – 4-2 for the Esprit de Corps Commandos.
The Russian Embassy hosted a reception following the game with lots of food and drink and His Excellency Alexander Darchiev, Ambassador of Russia, addressed the attendees extolling the virtues of this great rematch and proposed to make it a semi-annual affair. Most Valuable Players were named from each team with Commandos goalie being selected by the Russians as the Commandos MVP and #13 from the Russian team (Petrenko I think) being selected by the Commandos as Russia’s best. LGen. Al Meinzinger accepted the game trophy from the Ambassador on behalf of the Commandos.
To see all the pictures, CLICK HERE
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