Women’s hockey team opens camp with win
The demise of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League hasn’t prevented the top women’s hockey players in the world from maintaining their competitive edge as they prepare for the 2020 world championships this April in Nova Scotia.
“The Montreal group has been very lucky,” Olympian Mélodie Daoust said Monday as the Canadian National women’s’ team opened a four-day mini-camp at Université de Montréal.
“We still practice the same, maybe even more than last year. (Caroline Ouellette) and Danielle (Sauvageau) are here to coach and we have a skills session every week with (former Canadien) Sébastien Bordeleau. The non-national team players are there every single practice, which gives us the bestcase scenario. We’re on the ice quite a bit and these mini-camps help. This is the third one and we see each other more than in past years.”
The mini-camps, which are supported by Montreal-based insurer BFL, are part of an overall program to compensate the loss of the CWHL.
Canada and the United States, the two leading powers in women’s hockey, have increased the number of exhibition games they play against each other and more than 100 players from both sides of the border are participating in showcase tournaments organized by the fledgling Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA).
“We’ve had events in Toronto, Chicago and New Hampshire and there are three more planned in the new year,” said Daoust. “They’re going to announce another one in
Toronto and one in Philadelphia and we’re hoping Montreal will be in the middle.”
The showcases bear the Dream Gap label, a reference to the ultimate goal, which is a professional women’s league. There are ongoing talks with the NHL and other groups about partnering with the women, but the progress has been slow.
“It might take longer than we think,” said two-time Olympic gold medallist Marie-philip Poulin. “We believe in our product and we want to do something for the next generation. Every time we play, we see little girls come in to watch us and they’re excited.”
“It’s our dream to be treated like pros and I’m sure it’s going to happen.” added Daoust.
In addition to the daily training sessions, the mini-camp includes two games against the men’s team from CEGEP André Laurendeau. Poulin and Daoust had the night off Monday but Team Canada didn’t need them. Sarah Nurse, Brianne
Jenner, Rebecca Johnston, Victoria Bach and Jamie Lee Rattray each scored once to back up solid goaltending from national team rookie Shea Tiley in a 5-2 victory. A second game will be played Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“We play a lot of games against midget teams and some Junior A men’s clubs,” said Perry Pearn, a former Canadiens assistant coach who is beginning his second year as head coach of the women’s team. “When we play well, we win. If we don’t play well, we don’t.”
Pearn’s team beat the U.S. in its first two meetings this season and there are five games coming up in the Rivalry Series.
“We used a lot of young players, college players in those first two games, and we’ll do the same in the two games around Christmas (Dec. 14 in Pittsburgh and Dec. 17 in Moncton) and then we’ll have our top lineup for the games in February,” said Pearn.