To see all the pictures of the game, CLICK HERE:
Once again, it’s time for another edition of OSAA Lame Ducks Hockey. For those that don’t know, OSAA stands for the Ottawa Service Attachés Association which consists of the Defence Attachés from the various embassies around town and the Lame Ducks is their hockey team. It’s made up of members from some countries where skating is just another wintertime sport (i.e. Netherlands, Germany, Latvia, etc.) to countries that have never seen snow or ice (Rwanda and Egypt for example). Some come to the team already knowing how to skate and some have never seen skates in their lives. Regardless, it’s become a brotherhood over the years and a good time is had by all.
On Wednesday, they faced one of their rivals, the Esprit de Corps Magazine Commando Lites, headed by magazine publisher Scott Taylor. A motley crew at best, the Lites managed to put together a team, complete with Mason Whitham, a 17 year old goalie and son of James Whitham of the War Museum. They were severely outnumbered by the Lame Ducks team who had just about every Defence Attaché in town on the bench but were missing a couple their stronger players from the UK, Latvia, and New Zealand.
It was a hard fought game with the first period ending 0-0 for the Lame Ducks (please – no emails). But that changed in the second period where the Commandos dominated and scored three unanswered goals at 12:24, 7:14, and 4:11 (all times approximate due to the time change to daylight savings) to sprint ahead 3-0 at the end of the second.
One would have thought that the game was in the bag for the Lites but that was not the case. The Ducks roared (quacked) back at 19:06 and 18:50 in the third to make it a game but the Lites also potted two more at 13:30 and 8:46 before the Ducks added a third for the period at 5:41 (score 5-3 Lites). It came down to the last minute when the Ducks put in a fourth at 1:20 remaining but the Lites capped it off at 1:01 to take the win. Although the Ducks outscored the Lites in the third period 4-3, it wasn’t enough to overcome the Lite lead at the end of the second with the final score being 6-4 in favour of the Esprit de Corps Commando Lites.
At the brew-up after the game, the MVPs were named by each team. For the Lites, the MVP, as nominated by the Lame Ducks, was the Lites’ goalie, Mason Whitham for his role in the victory – including shutting down the Ducks Paul Fowler on two penalty shot attempts. Mason wasn’t present to accept the award as he was only 17 years old and the brew-up was held in a local pub. The Lites nominated the MVP on the Ducks side to be Rebekka Johst, spouse of Lars, the German Defence Attaché. She was awarded the Roger Schallom Memorial Trophy for her consistent intensity during the game.
The game finished and awards presented, everyone went back to pizza, wings and beer.
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