By Josh Lewis

Cory Vitarelli scored the game- winner midway through the second period and Dayne Davis made 31 saves to lead the UPEI Panthers to a 3-2 victory over the St. Thomas Tommies in Atlantic University Sport men’s hockey action Wednesday night.

The win ended a four-game los- ing streak for UPEI and increased the Tommies’ streak to the same number — all by 3-2 scores. The Panthers move into a tie for fourth in the conference with 12 points through 12 games, while St. Thomas drops to sixth with 11.

Team captain Josh Patterson and Ryan Kitchen had the other mark- ers for UPEI, while Matthew Foster and Kyle Gailey replied for the visiting Tommies.

Patterson opened the scoring just 14 seconds into the game, burying Kitchen’s centering pass between the pads of STU goaltender Matt Davis for his team-leading ninth of

By Josh Lewis

I recently had the good fortune to be at Ohio State University in Columbus during the biggest week of the year for the Buckeyes foot- ball team: the week before its annual rivalry game against the Michigan Wolverines.

“Beat Michigan” week, as it is called, was a never-ending show of fanatical school spirit and rituals which date back more than 50 years. Everywhere I went, people were talking about Michigan.

I don’t just mean diehard football fans. Something like seven people out of 10 on the street were decked out in Ohio State gear. Men and women alike sported Buckeye tat- _ toos on their faces. Constant chants of “O-H!” rang out in the nighttime air, waiting for the familiar, even louder reply of “I- O!!” Almost every public transit _ bus in the city carried the message “BEAT MICHIGAN!” and one campus paper’s front page screamed the words “MUCK FICHIGAN.”

You’d never realize that this was only a regular season game, or that OSU had already been all but

eliminated from a national champi-

_ onship berth. As one fan told me, they’ll take beating Michigan over a national title any day of the week.

UPEI’s Puck Panthers

snap four-game skid —

University s hockey team pick up

big win over the Tommies

the year. St. Thomas got on the board four minutes later when Foster caught Dayne Davis out of position on the power play.

Gailey made it 2-1 at 14:37, assisted by Foster and Jean Bourbeau.

In the second, it was Kitchen tying the game again just 1:04 into

the frame, converting a pretty tic- tac-toe play with the man-advan- tage.

Howie Martin made a cross-ice pass to Patterson at the bottom of the right face-off circle, and Patterson one-timed a feed to Kitchen at the left side of the net, leaving no chance for Matt Davis.

Vitarelli scored the winner at 9:49

on another power-play, blasting a shot between the pads of Davis. The goal, Vitarelli’s seventh, was unassisted.

Each team had several golden opportunities for more goals, including a breakaway for each side which ended with a shot ring- ing off a post.

The Tommies had the edge in shots with 33 to UPEI’s 28. The home side went 2-for-5 with the man-advantage, while STU went 1-for-7.

The Panthers continue to boast an extremely balanced attack. Patterson, Vitarelli and Martin are tied for the team lead with 13 points. Kitchen and Stephen Cooke have 12 each, Kyle Spurr has 10, and Vince Scott and Craig Foster each have 9. :

Wednesday’s game was the last home match-up for UPEI before the Christmas break. They visit the Tommies on Saturday to conclude the first half before returning to action at home on Jan. 4 against Acadia.

- A world apart...

The last three nights of my stay in Columbus were pure bedlam. On Thursday night, over a thou- sand people, mostly inebriated,

participated in the time-honoured tradition of jumping into Mirror Lake. The party continued the fol- lowing night and, of course, on Saturday night after the Buckeyes won the big game 14-3. ©

As I heard the chants of “We don’t give a damn about the whole

state of Michigan” and saw the shirts reading “Ann Arbor Is Still A Whore’, I began to reflect on just how different the college

sports cultures are in Canada and the United States, and especially how bereft we are of school spirit here at UPEI.

I’m not going to go on a sappy school spirit rant here. We all know apathy is a powerful thing and I am victim to it at times

Dec. 14, 2007

~The Wave and UPEI Players of the Week

Female:

Jenna Kaye

3rd year, Business Basketball Sackville, N.B.

In the first game of the season Jenna Kaye was leading scorer with 14 pts and 5 rebounds in a loss to UNB. In the 2nd game the Panthers won and Kaye was player of the game, with 22 pts and 5 rebounds.

Male:

Andrew Black 4th year, Business Basketball Toronto, Ont.

Andrew Black was excellent in his first league play as a Panther

helping them to a 2-0 start vs. UNB. His stats for the weekend averaged 18.0 ppg, 13.0 rpg and 3.0 spg in the two wins. Saturday the Panthers won 102-70 and Sunday 71-69.

myself regarding certain subjects. Clearly UPEI, or any other Canadian university, will never reach the level of spirit found at huge American schools like Ohio State, particularly those with suc- cessful football programs.

I do believe, however, that we need an injection of sports spirit. Our university has a vibrant athlet- ics program, yet the level of indif- ference toward our sports teams is staggering. Yes, the teams have their hardcore fans and family members who go to every game. But they could all use a lot more fan support. We may not have any- thing close to a Michigan rivalry, but our teams certainly do have rivals. For men’s hockey, it’s Moncton and Acadia at the moment. Both soccer teams always play hard-fought games against - Memorial and UNB, to name two. Those are just a couple of exam- ples.

The AUS is a highly competitive conference and there’s all kinds of entertaining action to be witnessed across all sports.

Our soccer teams had strong showings this year and the other squads all have the potential to fol- low.

We don’t have the money, the population or even the football program of Ohio State. But that’s no reason not to emulate their pas- sion.