Top women battle for Clarkson Cup on Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre

As a captain, Cassie Campbell led the Canadian women to two Olympic gold medals.

As a broadcaster of NHL and CWHL games and former player, she has a unique view on the development of women’s hockey.

“It’s 25 times better than when I was that age,” Campbell says of the talent level in the CWHL. “I’m going to watch this Clarkson Cup on Sunday (Montreal vs. Calgary) and it’s really close to the level of Canada-USA in a world championship or Olympic final. It’s exciting.

“It doesn’t have nation vs. nation, but the talent is very similar and the depth of the teams,” Campbell says. “When I played you had oneand-a-half or maybe two lines depending on what team you played for, but now all four lines are good.”

Women’s hockey has come a long way since 1990, when Canadian Amateur Hockey Association staffer Pat Reid had Canada’s team pose in pink jerseys on Parliament Hill, in a bid for attention. Ottawa was the host city for the inaugural women’s worlds, a shot in the dark at best.

Then-IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch vowed to increase female Olympic participation and asked the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) to launch a women’s world championships as a precursor to an Olympic tournament. Canada was deemed the only nation capable of attracting fans to women’s hockey and so the CAHA president at the time, Ottawa’s Murray Costello, set about organizing a tournament.

Partly thanks to those pink uniforms (deemed sexist by some Members of Parliament), the 1990 worlds were a surprise success. A crowd of close to 9,000, the largest to witness a women’s game at the time, packed into the Civic Centre to see Canada beat the USA in the final. Women’s hockey was off and running.

Twenty-seven years later, the sport can boast a host of glittering Olympic and world championship moments, largely between the Canadians and Americans. In 1990, about 8,000 Canadian girls and women were registered to play. Today the number is close to 90,000. Reid, meanwhile, is working on a PhD in sport management on the ‘Legitimacy of Women’s Elite Hockey’ with a focus on that 1990 tournament as a launching pad.

On the ice, nations beyond North America are gradually improving, partly because of NCAA scholarships to international players and participation in the CWHL, which is showcasing talent and personality.

“They are really doing things that the guys do,” Campbell says. “I have no trouble comparing us with some of the men’s skill level stuff. We’ll never be as strong, that’s the nature of the beast, but some of the things these girls try in games now — and their shots — are incredible.” wscanlan@postmedia.com