Hockey vs. sleep
A wild night at the Max Bell
Steve Bohrn Staff
How much do you love hockey? Enough to watch it with your friends on a Saturday night? Enough to play it every once in a while?
Well, for seven teams of up to six skaters and a goalie each, hockey became more than just a passing fancy in an overnight shinny tournament that lasted from about 11:30 p.m on Friday, March 10 until about 7 a.m. on March 11. For an exhausting eight straight hours, these seven teams participated in the Midnight Madness tournament put on by the university’s Recreation Services at the Max Bell Centre.
Bjorn Billehaug, Recreation Services’ coordinator of intramurals and the planner of events like Midnight Madness and the hugely popular Halloween Howl dodge-ball tournament, said that the tournament was a huge success, although he would have liked to have seen more teams enter.
“We had seven teams playing, which was nice, but we had space for 12, and it would have only made the event that much better.”
Midnight Madness is just the latest in a wide range of events that Recreation Services has put on to try and bring out the student body for a good time and some physical activity. It got its start when the organizers wanted to do something different.
“Intramurals are one thing, but they require a big time commitment from the participants. With something like this, it’s a one night shot and you don’t really have to work around your schedule when it runs between midnight and 6 a.m.,” said Billehaug.
The tournament was set up in round-robin style, where all of the teams got ample ice time and plenty of opportunities to chat it up with the other players. Each game consisted of two 18-minute periods with no stoppages for penalties or goals. Billehaug said the atmosphere of the tournament was competitive, but with a definite tendency toward socializing with opponents.
“The flow of the games was smooth and the overall feel was one of friendliness and camaraderie.”
Apparently, most players realized early on in the tournament that the real opposition was not the other teams, but the exhaustion that would soon overtake their bodies.
At the end of the night, “The Grizz” would emerge victorious after defeating the “Sly Dragons” 10-8 in the championship match-up. However, all of the participants were rewarded for their long night of physical exertion with a wide range of prizes. These ranged from hockey paraphernalia to food and free ice time in the future.
The tournament was somewhat of an experiment, as it was the first time Recreation Services has hosted an event like this, but Billehaug said the event will be back without question next year and hopefully well into the future.
“Midnight Madness will be back. We learned a lot from this year and hopefully it will be even better in the future.”
If you missed Midnight Madness, several organizations, including UMSU and others, put on hockey tournaments that are open to all students.
And don’t worry, if you don’t love hockey enough to miss out on sleep for it, the other tournaments run during normal daylight hours!
