Everyone a Winner at the Latest ODA Cup

By Diane Peters

As the clock ran down in the final minutes of the April 11 ODA Cup hockey game, goalie Satchel Krawchuk scurried to the player box so the University of Toronto Dental Hockey Club (DHC) could put another forward on the ice.

The score was 1 – 2 with the Western University Mighty Dents in the lead — and the home team Dents had just drawn a penalty. “We had a power play and an extra attacker trying to score, and we still couldn't,” reports Krawchuk, a Faculty DDS4 student and DHC captain. 

“The feeling of losing the game went away pretty fast,” admits Krawchuk, who was part of the team that last won in the Cup in 2023, when he was a DDS1. “It felt like a win with how much money we raised and all the people we were able to bring together.”

The charity-focused event brought in $45,000, which gets divided between the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and the Wright Clinic in London. The ODA Cup was first played in 2008 and is all about raising funds for access to care, fostering a good-natured rivalry, and engaging the dentistry communities of both schools.

“Our team played an excellent game,” says coach Joel Rosenbloom, who considers the Dent’s goalie and some refereeing calls the difference-makers. “With each passing year, the ODA Cup takes on new momentum and a life of its own. The excitement in the crowd is palpable. I hear often from students who are not hockey fans that they are on the edge of their seats, as the games are always very close, without exception.”

DDS1 team members such as Jacob Marco were at the Cup for the first time, and found it a special way to end the DHC season. (Which was a pretty good one, since the team took Division 1 in U of T’s Tri-Campus League for the fall semester, a first.)

“It felt like I was playing for my classmates, not just myself,” says left wing Marco of the ODA Cup. “I’m really proud of what we did because the main goal is raising as much money as we could.”

He’s loved how being on the DHC has helped him build relationships, including with classmates who are on the team — they would debrief games between classes — and upper-year students. “We talk, but not just about hockey, about the future as well.”

Meanwhile, since Marco completed three years at Western before starting his DDS, the visit to London allowed him to hang out with his former classmates, plus chat with dental students there, and compare programs and experiences.

Some of the senior-year students from both schools organize the game. It ends up being a learning — and bonding — experience as they learn about events promotion and work with sponsors and organizers from the other team. “I wanted to make it as special for the first years as when I played for the first time,” says Krawchuk of his focus as he helped organize. “I want them to know how big a deal it is, so they can continually pass it on.”

To raise money, the DHC, for the first time, hosted a pre-event in Toronto in March at a bar that kicked off fundraising and generated interest in the game.

At the Cup itself, during the first intermission, Chuck-A-Puck allowed people to pay $10 for a soft puck and try to hit a target on the ice from the stands to win an Apple Watch. Second intermission saw randomly selected DDS4s from both schools take part in a shot competition for Great Toronto Hockey League tickets. Raffle prizes included Toronto Maple Leafs tickets, Bose headphones and a Kindle. 

The game delivered, too. The DHC had a disallowed goal in the first period due to goaltender interference — debating the call kept everyone busy. The second was tense with no goals.

An action-packed third saw the Dents score, the DHC answer it soon after, and then the home team got another puck in the net. Talk about rivalries: the game-winning goal was scored by Dents defensive player and OMFS resident Brandon Worthen, much to the dismay of his brother Josh, DHC forward and U of T OMFS resident. 

“We’ll get you next time,” one DHC player gently ribbed on the Dent’s Instagram page. Indeed, next year, Toronto’s team will be intent on taking back the Cup on home soil, making sure graduating students get their hands on it at least once.

Of course, the final score is only part of the point of this annual charity game, says Rosenbloom. “At the end of the day, it is a game, and we are all colleagues working towards a common goal: raise money to provide dentistry for those who cannot afford it.”

Top photo: Graduating DHC team members (from left): forward Emily Mak, forward Milo Hawke, coach Samantha Gorman, forward Jake Pawlovich and goalie Satchel Krawchuk (Samantha Gorman)

Middle photo: The dropping of the puck at the ODA Cup (Samantha Gorman)