The opening line up is impressive. Team A’s starting line up consists of Brett Hull and Yuri Butsayev, centered by the captain Steve Yzerman. On defense for Team A is Mathieu Dandenault and Maxim Kuznetsov with Manny Legace starting in net.
Team B’s starting line up is centered by Igor Larionov with Luc Robitaille and Darren McCarty as the wingers. Nicklas Lidstrom and Fredrik Olausson man the blue line with Domink Hasek in goal.
They played two twenty minute periods for the championship scrimmage. The first ten minutes in each period were played as a regular game. The next five minutes were played with the buzzer being sounded every fifty seconds for line changes. The final five minutes played with exciting four-on-four action.
Jason Williams was the first to score, notching a goal seven minutes and thirty-five seconds into the first period for Team A.
A few minutes later Ryan Barnes was battling for the puck along the boards and suddenly realized the puck was no longer between himself and the boards. Turning around quickly and glancing to the left and right for where the puck hand gone he seemed a bit confused until he heard it hit the glass directly behind his head as someone shot it high trying to clear it out of the zone.
With three minutes remaining in the first period, Barnes came around behind the net and tried passing across to Williams who was open on Hasek’s stick side. Hasek had other plans though and foiled Barnes and Williams’ when he smothered the puck with his glove on it’s way through the top of his crease.
With 5.7 seconds remaining in the first period Steve Duchesne evened up the score with a goal for Team B. Pavel Datsyuk made an impressive cross ice pass to Duchesne who easily shot the puck in the net behind Legace who was still facing towards Datsyuk.
At the start of the second period there was a change in goal for both teams. Dominik Hasek was replaced with this years draft pick, Drew MacDonald while Manny Legace was replaced with veteran Chris Osgood.
Two minutes and four seconds into the period Larionov tipped Lidstrom’s shot past Osgood giving Team B a 2-1 lead.
A minute and forty-five seconds later Osgood went to play the puck and passed it up to a player with the winged wheel on his jersey. The problem was that player, Datsyuk, was wearing a home jersey and Osgood was wearing an away jersey. Datsyuk scored an easy goal into the wide open net.
Six minutes and seventeen seconds into the second period Chris Slater slashed Chad LaRose across the hand, which after the game and x-rays was shown to be broken. The slash infuriated LaRose’s teammate, Tim Verbeek, who went after Slater. Slater was on top at the end of the fight and both went to the box for one minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalties.
A minute after Slater got out of the box he instigated another fight, this time with Barnes. Barnes got the better of Slater with several good punches to the face. They both went to the box for two minutes for fighting majors.
Boyd Devereaux scored making the score 4 to 1 for Team B with eleven minuets left in the game.
Osgood went down to his knees for a shot half way through the second period but the puck bounced up and over his head. Luckily for him, tryouts Harlan Anderson and Danny Groulx were there and shot the puck out of the crease as it was rolling towards the goal line.
With six minutes and sixteen seconds remaining in the game, Slater instigated yet another fight, this time with Dwayne Zinger. Zinger, who broke his hand in the fight, got several good punches in and Slater fell to the ice as the officials came in to break it up. When the officials pulled them apart Slater tried to work his way free of the linesman to go back at Zinger.
With two minutes to go in the period, playing four-on-four hockey, Magnus Nilsson scored the first and only goal on MacIntyre with assists from Uwe Krupp and Jesse Wallin.
The final score of the championship game was 4-2 with Team C on top.
The teams packed their gear and said their last good bye’s. They signed a few more autographs before they boarded the buses for Detroit to start the exhibition season. They will face off against the New York Rangers at the Joe Louis Arena on Monday.
The rink wasn’t empty long before it was filled with the voices of young boys getting ready for a Squirt AA travel hockey team practice, developing more young hockey players who play for the love of the game.
