Thousands of Calgary university students flocked to the Scotiabank Saddledome on Jan. 27 to witness the ninth Crowchild Classic, which staged a raucous return after a two-year pandemic break.
The double-header hockey games between the men’s and women’s teams of the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University have always been very popular with students due to the cross-town rivalry between the two schools.
This year, 11,083 fans attended the game, which is just shy of the 12,859 all-time attendance record set in 2016.
The women’s teams proved to be quite evenly matched, as the game went into double overtime and then a shootout, where Aliya Jomha scored the game-winning goal for MRU, resulting in a 1-0 win.
“It felt really great in front of all the fans, to get it done for the team, it was awesome,” said Jomha.
The men’s game also proved to be an intense match with the game tied at multiple points, but the U of C Dino’s ultimately won the game 4-2.
MRU’s Riley Sawchuk scored the first goal of the game, and was proud of his team’s effort.
“I thought we battled hard, and it ended up being a really good game, and we just came up short which is unfortunate but it was an all-around good game.”