Vermont Cynic

Issue date: 2/21/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: John Wiechecki No, your eyes aren't fooling you. Zamboners' goalie richie Kaknes shoots on a breakaway oppurtunity in the team's season opener. The Zamboners won easily, 8-4.

They hadn't lost a game. In fact they won their two previous games by a combined 8 goals (actually four goal margins in each game). In their most recent game they trailed for two minutes before scoring 5 unanswered goals and turning it into a rout.

But here they are, trailing 2-0 in the last 3 minutes of the first period. They're missing several players (on a team with a roster roughly 13 strong, that significantly shortens the bench). There's lots of hockey left to play, as everyone knows, but things are becoming dire. Tension settles over the bench like a heavy fog. Something has to happen.

Less than one minute later it is apparent things have changed. With a one goal lead and the scoreboard reading 3-2, that fog of tension has broken into laughter and cheers. When the final horn sounds, they've won handily yet again, 9-4.

Meet the Zamboners, an intramural hockey team like no other.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty. If you've ever been on a co-ed intramural team you are well aware that finding a surplus of girls, let alone the minimum requirement, is a task in and of itself. The Zamboners have five girls which leaves them comfortably over the minimum requirement of two.

What's more, one of these girls, a varsity soccer player, is the team's leading scorer with 11 goals in three games. Talk about dominance. Think Paul Kariya with a ponytail. A case could be made that a few of the girls are actually better than some of their male teammates, especially those who can't even skate backwards.

So what the leading scorer is a girl, you say. What makes this team so interesting?

There are not just one, but two goalies. One played prep-school hockey in Connecticut, the other played in public high school just outside of Chicago. One is stand-up, one is stand-on-his-head. One is 6'2", the other is 5'2." That's right, stand them next to each other and one is literally head and shoulders taller than the other. Both are unafraid of leaving their net to cut down the angle on a breakaway, even if it means stacking the pads and taking out the oncoming attacker.

Continued...

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