Huskies’ D duo also leading the way on offence
Bohlken, Kirwan perfecting their ‘celly’ as they generate a third of team’s scoring
Leah Bohlken is simply not used to scoring all these goals.
Her rather hesitant goal-scoring celebration can attest to that.
Bohlken actually had to work on her “celly” this season with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team.
Fortunately, she’s had plenty of rehearsal time.
“It’s actually funny because I was telling my mom, ‘Yeah, when I got that overtime winner (against Lethbridge), I didn’t know what to do,’” admits Bohlken, whose Huskies play their final two games of the regular season Friday and Saturday (7 p.m.) at Merlis Belsher Place against the defending U Sport national champion University of Manitoba Bisons.
“My legs started coming up, so I brought them up and did the little leg-up crunch thing. So I kind of had to practice that a bit. I took some tips from Willow (Kaitlin Willoughby) and she scored (most of ) our goals last year.”
Bohlken and defence partner Kayla Kirwan are both making names for themselves on offence.
The duo is generating a big chunk of the scoring for the Hockey Dogs.
In fact, Bohlken has a team-leading nine goals. Kirwan has five.
Together, those two players account for a third of the team’s scoring: 14 of the Huskies’ 43 goals this season.
That’s unusual for a team that had previously relied on high-scoring forward Kaitlin Willoughby for so many years.
“Both (Bohlken and Kirwan) play every game, consistently, where they’re one-two in time on the ice for us,” says U of S women’s hockey coach Steve Kook, whose team sports a 9-2-1 record on home ice and 6-7-1 record on the road.
“They’re 20-25 minutes a game, each of them. They play an awful lot. They get a lot of looks, a lot of chances. They ’re on the power play, they kill (penalties) for us, everything.”
Neither Bohlken nor Kirwan had any idea that they have scored a third of their team’s goals this season. Neither player is used to being relied on offensively.
“I wasn’t (a big-time scorer growing up),” stressed Bohlken. “I was usually the one who prevented goals and not really scored them. I was more defensive. This is entirely new.
“It’s definitely different this year, but it’s a nice role for me to take on and my partner, too, for us to step up once Kaitlin left. Everybody’s stepped up. Kayla and I are pretty happy to help out in that way.”
Bohlken has nine goals and six assists through 25 games. Kirwan has registered five goals and three assists in 26 games.
Last season, Bohlken had only two goals and Kirwan three.
Kirwan’s game has certainly evolved on the Huskies. As a rookie, she was held scoreless.
“At first, when I came to the team, it was kind of new to me, the offensive side of things,” said Kirwan, who describes herself as a “defensive” defenceman and Bohlken more offensive.
“We’ve played together my three years so we’ve got some pretty good chemistry together and we just work off each other.”
Kook says the defensive pairing relies on speed.
“They’re such good skaters,” stressed Kook, who credits assistant coach Brian Mcgregor for “creating this two-headed monster” on defence.
“This has been a three-year project for our D. Mac, our defence coach, has really been getting them activated and up into the play, not just up into the play but up in the zone in terms of what they do with the puck. I think the extra space that Merlis (Belsher Place) gives them is a place for them to do that.”
Mcgregor says Bohlken and Kirwan both work awfully hard doing what’s asked of them this season.
“That’s to incorporate our defence into the rush as much as possible, and that’s something we knew going into the season with some players leaving, and we lost some goals on the forward lines that we needed to find a way to get some more and they’ve filled that void more than capably,” said Mcgregor.
“They’ve done some things we’ve asked: jumping into the rush, skating into spots and, of course, they both play the power play, which is a component of their success, as well.”
Saskatchewan sits in fourth in the Canada West conference with a 15-9-1-1 record.
Manitoba is second with a 19-42-1 record.
While the Bisons can still overtake the Alberta Pandas for first overall, the Huskies are locked into fourth and will play host to either the Mount Royal Cougars or Regina Cougars in the Canada West women’s quarter-final hockey playoffs next weekend.
It’ll be Cats and Dogs in the playoffs, no matter what.