Darren Zary
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
They’re a couple of months ahead of schedule, compared to last year, at least.
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team didn’t record its first win last season until the end of November.
This year, the Huskies got it done a lot sooner — their second game of the season — with a victory on Oct. 4 over Mount Royal University in Calgary.
They’re back in Saskatoon this weekend for their season home-opener against the Trinity Western Spartans.
“We’re okay — I think the word I’ve been using is we’re ‘youngish,” says Huskies head coach Steve Kook. “We’re not young anymore, but still the bulk of our team is first- and second-years so we’ve got a healthy mix. We’ve got five fifth-years and then the young ones.”
In their season-opening weekend in Calgary against Mount Royal, the team showed its two sides.
“On the Friday night, we saw a lot of the young kids, the young part, come out. Saturday, we saw a lot of the experience in us come out,” Kook says.
Our job this season is to keep bringing the experience out.”
Kook expects some bumps along the way.
We’re going to get spurts of that this year, and that’s part of the growing process. They haven’t been put in those situations, and they need to be reminded that, ‘hey, just do what we do.’”
Who’s new?
The key newcomer is Finnish import forward Peppi Virtanen, who has experience with Finland’s national program.
Among other newcomers are blueliner Evangeline West and forward Jessica Anderson, both from Manitoba, as well as Kara Mitenko, a forward from the Edge school program in Calgary, and Saskatoon product Ella Clarke from the Prince Albert AAA Bears.
Who’s all back?
Colby Wilson, Clara Juca and Emma Backman return in goal with Kendra Zuchotzki, Jacquelyne Chief, McKenna Bolger, Avery Gottselig, Makenna Stevens, Julianna Herman and Hallie Franklin all back on the blueline.
Returnees up front include captain Sarah Kendall, Bronwyn Boucher, Paris Oleksyn, Shelby Williamson, Jayde Cadieux,Ava Bergman, Jaiyana Nurani, Kaysah Nurani, Kahlen Wisener and Aeryn Flanagan.
Who are the key players this season?
“All of our fifth-years have to play a big role this year,” says Kook. “We need our senior players to have a little bit more composure and just do the things that we do.”
Fifth-years include Bolger, Boucher, Kendall, Oleksyn and Zuchotzki,
What sort of outlook or expectations do you have?
“Playoffs — we need to get back to playoffs,” Kook is quick to reply. “That’s our goal. Last year was the first time in a while that we hadn’t been in the playoffs (dating back to 2008).
It’s been a wake-up call for the veterans, just in terms of not being in that situation before. For the young ones, it was a good eye-opener to see ‘oh, yeah, every weekend does matter; every point does matter’ because we were in a lot of tight games last season that we didn’t end up getting points out of.”
