U of A’s MacDougall continues to up her game
When you think of hockey players from Cole Harbour, N.S., the first names you will naturally think of are NHL superstars Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. But young hockey players from the small city in the Maritimes may start bringing up the name Autumn MacDougall now, too.
The University of Alberta Pandas forward helped win the U Sports national championship last year.
This year, MacDougall has her sights set on helping the Pandas repeat as national champions and she has elevated her game to a new level.
MacDougall was the first Pandas player to win a Canada West scoring title in nine years after leading the conference with 12 goals and 30 points.
“The experience of winning nationals last year, I became a lot more confident player,” MacDougall said. “I became a more complete 200-foot player. In my first year all I ever thought about was offence, but my coaches stressed that if I want to be one of the best players in the league I would have to focus on my defensive game, and becoming a more complete player has helped my game tremendously.”
On Friday, the Pandas opened their defence of the national championship against the Regina Cougars at Clare Drake Arena. MacDougall had an assist on Alex Poznikoff’s game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of their Canada West best-of-three quarter-final series.
The assist marked the first U Sports playoff point for MacDougall. Hannah Olenyk also scored for Alberta, while Kirsten Chamberlin made 14 saves for her first playoff victory.
Jaycee Magwood scored the lone marker for Regina.
There are a few different factors to MacDougall’s success this year.
She’s been rewarded by her stronger commitment to a twoway game. She also has great chemistry with Poznikoff. The duo has dominated as linemates and Poznikoff finished second in Canada West scoring with 23 points in 28 games.
MacDougall could also look at getting the chance to watch and learn from arguably the best player in the world this summer.
Crosby spent part of his summer on-ice training back in Cole Harbour.
“I worked a lot of hockey camps and he was training at the same facility and when I could, I would peak over and watch him on the ice and just see all the things he’d work on and try to work on a lot of those same things,” said MacDougall.
“I spent a lot of time working on my shot this summer. I set a goal of beating my scoring totals from last year and play a bigger role in helping our team win another national championship.”
Over the last decade, the Pandas have had plenty of success: Two Canada West titles, two national championships. But they ’ve had to score by committee.
This year, the Pandas led the conference in goals and had four players in the top-10 in scoring.
“Autumn brings a creativity element to her game that I can honestly say I’ve never seen another Panda do with the puck. There are some really neat things she does,” Pandas head coach Howie Draper said. “She may be the smallest player in the league, but she’s incredibly hard to contain and she brings so much energy to the ice and she’s fun to watch.”
MacDougall joins a list of many Pandas greats who have won a Canada West scoring title, including Danielle Bourgeois, Kristen Hagg, Jennifer Newton and Tarin Podolski. All four left an indelible mark on the Pandas program and MacDougall wants to do the same.
“It’s an honour to have my name mentioned among players like them,” said MacDougall. “It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the U of A, and getting to know a lot of the alumni, I have a lot of different role models to learn from.
“The Pandas have such an incredible history with so many great players who have made an impact on the program and I would like to leave my mark on this program over the next few years.”
BEARS WIN BLOWOUT: The Golden Bears men’s basketball team has its sights set on a national championship, making a statement in its opening playoff game against the University of Northern British Columbia Timberwolves.
Five players scored double digits in a 98-64 victory Friday afternoon at the Saville Community Sports Centre. Mamadou Gueye led the Bears, scoring 23 points and grabbing seven rebounds, while Brody Clarke had 18 points and eight rebounds. Alberta takes a 1-0 series lead in their best-of-three and can wrap up the quarter-final series on Saturday (2 p.m.).
BIG SWEEP: The women’s volleyball Pandas came through with a much-needed three-set victory (25-18, 25-13, 25-16) over the visiting University of Brandon Bobcats on Friday night. The win improves Alberta’s record to 14-9 and keeps hopes alive of hosting a first-round playoff series next weekend.