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May 25, 2012
Hard-won respect on the ice
Jason Margolis leads UVic to the BCIHL championship.
KYLE BERGER
He didn’t expect much to come of it, but when Jason Margolis got the call to join the University of Victoria (UVic) Hockey Club for “just one practice,” he knew he had the itch to play competitive hockey again. Little did he know that this one practice would turn into an opportunity for the kinesiology major to lead the team to a most unexpected British Columbia Intercollegiate Hockey League (BCIHL) title in March.
After a sluggish 3-7-2 start, the UVic team was dreaming of anything but a championship. When Margolis took over halfway through the season, both his and the team’s fortunes changed and they finished with an 11-12-3 record.
Then came the playoffs. As Margolis explained, even competing in the post-season competition wasn’t a sure thing.
“The team was under huge budget concerns ... with not a ton of financial support from the university,” he said, noting that most of the money to compete in the tournament came from the players and some small sponsors. “After we had qualified for the playoffs, we had to have a team meeting and vote on whether or not to go further into debt as a team. We had to drive up in our own cars instead of taking a charter bus.”
They also knew they’d be facing a Simon Fraser University (SFU) team that had won the previous two championships – losing only six games the past two seasons combined – and the UVic squad was without a top defenceman, their assistant captain and two other regular forwards due to injuries and school commitments.
The team decided to press on and their spirit, along with great goaltending, took over.
When they faced off against SFU, despite being outshot 47-25, Margolis kept his team in the game long enough to watch them score a tying goal with 1:31 left in the game. Overtime solved nothing, then Margolis saved five of six shootout attempts to lead his team to victory.
The next game, they faced Okanagan College and were outshot again, 42-27. The game went to a shootout once more, with Margolis making the winning save.
Then came the finals, where SFU was ready for revenge. The UVic team handed their opponents an early 2-0 lead. But the never-say-die squad battled back to tie the game in the third period. With the championship on the line, UVic’s Dustin Taylor scored the winning goal just 34 seconds into overtime.
“I think we kind of fed off the fact that other teams weren’t giving us respect,” Margolis said. “Even if we didn’t have as much talent as the other teams, we knew that we could put in the effort for 60 minutes or more to push them to their limit. Everyone on our team played their hearts out and it’s something special that we will never forget about.”
Margolis, who had been cut from the UVic teams several years back, said that this was the proudest moment of his hockey career.
“This year, and victory, really validated all my hard work in hockey,” he said. “From making my mom take shots on me in our basement when I was five years old, to playing my first 5 a.m. practice, this was the most exciting and greatest experience of my life.”
Margolis is back in Vancouver now, looking for a recreational hockey team that might want someone with championship experience.
Bulldogs win it all
Following up on an almost perfect regular season, the Blue Bulldogs took home the Jewish Community Centre Hockey League’s championship trophy in April.
The Bulldogs led the league with a 19-0-1 regular season – their only blemish coming in the final game of the season with a shootout loss to the Black Diamonds. While the Dogs did surrender a regulation-time loss to the Orange Crush in their second-round series, they took all three rounds to win the coveted Stan Syme Memorial Trophy.
Bulldog captain Mark David said that this team put many demons to rest by winning their final game. “Our core group was developing a reputation for regular season success that didn’t turn into championships,” he said. “I think a lot of people were expecting the same this year, but this team was special. We really believed in each other and got it done.”
Registration for the 2012-13 season begins in June, with the season kicking off in September. For more information, visit jccgv.com.
Kyle Berger is a Richmond freelance writer and the sports coordinator at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
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