Canton Varsity Hockey battled in a tough game against Salem, pulling out a 5-4 win at Arctic Edge on December 7.
Canton hockey coach Aaron Schwartz was feeling excellent after that last buzzer went off and his team won the game. “It felt excellent–mostly happy for the boys. That’s the biggest thing for this year. We just want to give them, you know, the best opportunity to find success,” Schwartz said. “So, you know, winning a big Park game is always exciting for the coaches, but most importantly winning for the boys is what matters most.”
When the thought about Park games comes to Schwartz’s mind he thinks about all of his past coaching experiences. “As a coach for me, what’s unique is I’ve coached a handful of the guys on teams across all three schools, so it is always fun to see the guys seeing success that they are having at other schools,” Schwartz said. “But just the electricity in the building, the atmosphere, and how much it means to our guys is the most fun thing about park games.”
The players from Canton, Chase Hodges and Nick Parrish, play big roles for the Canton Cobras as they are both seniors and one is a captain.
The difference between a Park rival and a regular game would be just how odd it is to go to school with them and have to see them every day. “It’s crazy, because I have so many friends on that team that I hang out with basically every single day that I get to play against once a year,” Hodges said. “It was great to walk out with a dub against them.”
The hockey game was electric. There was cheering, booing, jumping, and even some tears. “[The stands] are always packed. I love when the crowd shows up and you line up for the ice and you hear kids yelling and stuff,” Parrish said. “The crowd and atmosphere, when you score, it is just really great.”
As a senior, Hodges made sure that no one got complacent. “Coming back into the locker room, especially when we were up. You know, everyone thought it was going to be a walk in the park after that, but I’d tell them it’s not going to be.”
On the other side of the puck the game was much different for Salem.
The emotions during Park rivalry games can get pretty intense. Many fights break out and there is a massive amount of chirping. “From a coaching perspective, I necessarily don’t enjoy them. They’re highly emotional and it is to be expected, so really when the emotions get involved, people tend to not play to their utmost potential,” said Salem hockey coach Jake Sealy.
Towards the end of the game, Salem had a chance to tie it up so they called a timeout and tried to figure out a plan.
“We went over what each other’s responsibilities were off of the draw,” said Sealy “We were able to do what we wanted for the most part, but I think Karsen #9 was able to get the puck how we wanted but just kind of mishandled it and got it away from himself just slightly, but ultimately we got the puck towards it so that’s what we wanted and is good.”
Cameron Eichner, captain and four-year Salem hockey member, reflected on the game and the team’s performance. “I think that when we were down, I still had a lot of belief in our guys and thought that we would be able to pull it off, but at the end of the day, they scored more goals than us and won that game.”
Nolan Kaminski, Salem senior and first year player for Salem, was very anxious for the game against Canton. “This is probably the most nervous I’ve ever been in a game, and it sucks that we lost, but hopefully since we have another Park game we can win, and hopefully we can play them in the playoffs.”
Salem suffered a tough loss to Canton, leaving them disheartened—but if their coach and players are right, it could fuel them even more. Canton earned a crucial victory they hope will propel them to success in future games.
