Prince Albert product to serve as captain for Huskies next year
Although her off-season started a lot earlier than she expected, Prince Albert’s Brooke Hobson is making sure that she’s staying active for when she returns to action with the Northeastern Huskies.
“It’s a weird time for sure but I’m trying to make the most of it,” Hobson said. “The gyms aren’t quite open yet, but that gives me the opportunity to focus on other things, so I’ve been doing a lot of work lately on improving my cardio.
“It’s been a pretty interesting time for all of us on the team. Some of us are in places where there are more resources available than others, but are coaches are making sure that we are staying busy and achieving our goals each and every day.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sports world in March, Hobson and her Huskies teammates were gearing up for the NCAA’s Women’s Hockey Tournament as they were going to host the Princeton Tigers in the quarter-final round.
“We were still keeping our hopes up that we would be able to play and we were going to practice all week, but as we saw the NBA and NHL stop their seasons, we kind of had a feeling that the tournament wasn’t going to happen,” Hobson said.
“I don’t think it really hit us until we found out that the season was officially over. It was definitely a shock and the emotions were high for all of us, especially for our senior players (Paige Capistran, Matti Hartman and Codie Cross) as their college careers came to an end.”
The Huskies earned a spot in the tournament after clinching their third Hockey East championship with an overall record of 32-4-2.
“We had a really tight-knit group this year and I think that helped us out a lot,” said Hobson, who was third in defensive scoring with 15 points in 30 games.
“We all brought the same energy in our practices and each game, which I think really allowed us to build our chemistry as the season went on.”
One of the biggest highlights of the campaign for the Huskies came on Feb. 11 as they defeated the Boston Terriers in a 3-2 double overtime affair to capture the program’s first Beanpot Tournament title since 2013.
“My two brothers flew out to Boston to watch that game and they ended up seeing a pretty good one,” Hobson joked. “We were all pretty eager to win the Beanpot and to do it in double overtime was really exciting.”
When the Huskies start their 2020-21 campaign, Hobson will be serving as the team’s captain after being part of the Huskies’ leadership group this past season as an assistant captain.
“It’s a nice feeling to know that my teammates have put their trust in me and it means a lot to have their support,” said Hobson, who was the captain for the Prince Albert Northern Bears when they went to the Esso Cup in 2017. “To be a leader is something I take a lot of pride in and I try to help my teammates both on and off the ice to the best of my ability.
“We’re going to have a pretty similar roster to what we had this past season and I think it’s going to be a really exciting year. The new faces are going to be pushing us to be better and that’s the type of competitive environment you want to be in as a player.”
