The matches in the ice-polo league of the Boston schools have developed good sport during the recent cold weather, and the schedule has afforded a number of close games. Dorchester played a tie game with Roxbury Latin on Franklin Field Friday afternoon, January 15, the score being 1-1. Only one twenty-minute period was played. Dorchester rather outclassed Roxbury Latin in passing and driving, but was unable, nevertheless, to get the ball into Roxbury's cage the second time.
On the same afternoon, at Mystic Lake, Winchester met Cambridge High and Latin, and was defeated 7-0. The Cambridge men developed some excellent team-work, and showed some pretty combination plays. In a game between Medford High and Everett High, Medford won 3-1. Especially good work was done by Otis, Thompson, and Glidden.
HOCKEY: SHOWING GOAL, CLUBS, AND PUCK.
A number of communications have been addressed to this Department requesting that some description be given of the Canadian game of hockey, of which we have heard more than usual this year. In fact, in and about New York hockey is fast superseding ice polo; the latter, purely American game, being played mostly in New England. Hockey is, of course, akin to ice polo, but it has a number of points of difference, and is considered by the Canadians a much better game than our ice polo. Perhaps one of the chief advantages of hockey is that more players can take part in the sport than in ice polo.
The Yale Hockey Team is one of the few teams in this country, so far as I know, that plays the straight Canadian game, although this winter several of the athletic clubs in and about New York have taken up hockey, and will, no doubt, eventually develop strong teams. The Yale men have found the Canadian game so interesting, that they have devoted all their energies to it, and it is said that they will meet some of the Canadian teams during the winter. Space will not allow of a very lengthy description of the game, but in a few words a rough idea of the sport may be given, and a book of the rules with fuller information can doubtless be obtained of any dealer in sporting goods.
A Canadian Hockey team consists of seven players, who are known as Goal, Point, Cover Point, Centre Forward, Centre, Left Wing, and Right Wing, arranged on the field, or rather on the ice, in the following positions:
| L.W. | C. | R.W. |
| C.F. | ||
| C.P. | ||
| P. | ||
| G. |
Instead of the ball which we use in ice polo, the Canadians play with a rubber disk about an inch thick and some three inches in diameter. This is called a "puck." The sticks of the Canadians are also somewhat differently shaped from those used in ice polo, the main difference being that they are longer, and wider at the bottom, and usually constructed of lighter wood. They do not strike the puck as polo-players strike the ball, but rather aim to shove it along the ice, and more often than not the Canadians use both hands, instead of wielding their club with one hand only.
In this way the Canadians are able to make a certain peculiar shove which enables them to lift the rubber disk over the heads of their opponents, and some of them become so skilful at this that they can place the puck so that it will fall on edge and bound into the opposing goal. Perhaps it is this quality of the disk over the ball which has made it necessary in the Canadian game to allow the defensive players to stop the puck in any way they choose, instead of as in ice polo, where the ball may only be stopped by the sticks, the feet, or the body.