Playing up rivalries in U Sports women’s hockey a mistake – only for now

Thunderbirds sweep Huskies in epic rivalry series

The T-birds mob Hannah Clayton-Carroll after her OT2 winner.

    It was a column that was a bigger bust than Alexandre Daigle’s NHL career.
    In a column I published on this blog on Thursday, I ask, “Should a women’s hockey rivalry be played up in U Sports?”

    After Game 1 of a Canada West quarter-final series won 3-2 in overtime by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds over the University of Saskatchewan Huskies drew 324 spectators at Merlis Belsher Place, the answer is a resounding “No.” But, it is only a resounding “no” for now, and it didn’t have any reflection on the two teams in question – just the attendance.

Members of the Huskies react to falling in an epic rivalry clash.

    On Saturday at Merlis, the two sides followed up battling toe-to-toe in what could go down as one of the most epic games in U Sports women’s hockey in Game 2 of the set. The Thunderbirds prevailed in double overtime, when right-winger Hannah Clayton-Carroll tipped home a shot from UBC captain Mathea Fischer through the five-hole on Huskies star netminder Jessica Vance.

    The Thunderbirds took the game 1-0 and swept the best-of-three series 2-0. They advance to play the University of Alberta Pandas in a best-of-three Canada West semifinal series beginning this coming Friday. 
    On Saturday, a total of 417 spectators watch the Thunderbirds and Huskies - two archrivals - stand up for the honour their game.

    It was a beautiful sight to behold.

    The only thing missing was the background of a packed sellout crowd and the fan atmosphere like you see in some of the old storied rinks of the Western Hockey League during playoff time like the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert, the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current or The Arena, which is now decommissioned in Medicine Hat, Alta.

Hannah Clayton-Carroll (#22) had the double overtime winner for UBC.

    With the way the Thunderbirds and Huskies played in their quarter-final series, to say they deserved that is an obvious understatement. Game 2 was one that could have been played on national television.

    The blog post I published on Thursday trying to play up the rivalry between the Thunderbirds and Huskies, which can be found by clicking here, sat between 70 to 80 page views for most of the day Friday with a slight surge over the dinner hour.

    In the piece, I outlined the past bitter rivalry between the Thunderbirds and Huskies, detailed the challenges promoting rivalry in U Sports and proceeded to take some digs at the Thunderbirds to play into the rivalry.

Huskies Morgan Willoughby, left, and UBC’s Hannah Koroll in a stare down.

    With an attendance of 324 spectators and minimal page views on the post, you can’t justify at this moment in time going the route of creating a rivalry column to increase interest in the series. The attendance figure was the lowest for the Huskies women’s hockey team this season.

    Over 14 regular season home dates, the Huskies women’s team had the second best average attendance at 496 per game.

    It is a big mistake to produce a rivalry column right now, because the interest beyond the family and friends of the two teams isn’t there.

    Basically all you do is upset some of the parents on both sides of the rivalry, and of course that inevitably happened. There is an unwritten rule in minor sports that parents can be your worst enemy in the community, if they feel you have wronged their kid.

Kennedy Brown (#2) breaks out of the pack for the Huskies.

    The parents on both sides have sizable emotional investment in their athletes and have put countless hours in over the years helping their kids get to this point. All the players on both sides are where they are, because they are elite people. Of course, some parents are going to be protective of that.

    There were a lot parents that were all into the rivalry as well, so I am uncertain how I might be grading an overreaction by some on the front that didn’t like the rivalry piece.

    While members of the Thunderbirds and Huskies are elite athletes of young adult age spanning 18 to 24, the low attendance figures at this moment do not justify writing a rivalry column along the lines that you would write involving the Western Hockey League’s Prince Albert Raiders taking on the Saskatoon Blades.

Mathea Fischer (#26) brings the puck up ice for the Thunderbirds.

    The Raiders usually are in standing room at their 2,580 seat rink when they play the Blades, and the Blades can expect 4,000 to 5,000 spectators when the Raiders come to town. The interest is there to create a rivalry column to stir the pot.

    I was trying to transfer some elements from last year’s memorable six-game second round WHL playoff series between the Raiders and Blades into the series between the Thunderbirds and Huskies.

    At the moment for U Sports women’s hockey, the best way to advance a playoff series is a feature article on a popular player. 

The epic T-birds-Huskies clash was just missing a Raiders type home crowd.

    Usually, my page views for features on female hockey players, not just in U Sports, do well, even if attendance isn’t high.

    The risk of doing a rivalry column where attendance is just limited to family and friends is it can potentially increase tension between the parents groups and friends groups. The tensions can be increased with a controversial finish. I have seen that happen in the past in hockey.

    Friday’s classic encounter had a controversial finish.

Morgan Willoughby works the point for the Huskies.

    Fischer knocked in the winning goal with a high stick inside of the final 20 seconds of the first overtime period of that contest.

    It was a bang-bang play hard for the officials to see, but it was clear on replay. There are no instant replay reviews in U Sports women’s hockey.

    That type of finish combined with a rivalry column can create a lot of hostility between parents groups.

    As Friday went on and I saw the rivalry post wasn’t gaining views, I started to wonder if attendance would not be good. I was at the Indoor Training Centre at the Gordie Howe Sports Complex that day, and I learned it was reading week next week at the University of Saskatchewan and most of Saskatoon’s high schools.

    I got the impression attendance wouldn’t be high at the women’s hockey games, because athletes at the training centre who were not in season were focused on getting away to ski trips and vacations. 

Hannah Koroll starts a rush up ice for the Thunderbirds.

    In the current age of elite sport, athletes put more time into their craft than in any other era, so I don’t blame those athletes on wanting to get some down time.

    Fairly confident there wasn’t going to be a big attendance figure for Game 1, I figured it would be best to stay away just in case there was some type of controversy or incident, because due to the rivalry column, I would be the easy target to blame for any possible incidents had they occurred.

    That is a risk you also take in writing a rivalry column. I elected to follow the Game 1 proceedings online with the thought of trying to prevent any further hostilities.

    I figured it would be the best for everyone to get the night’s sleep and refocus for Saturday.

    Full marks go to the Thunderbirds on rallying from down 2-0 to get the win in Game 1. The fact that Saskatoon product and former Prince Albert Northern Bears captain Hannah Koroll got the third period equalizer was really nice.

The Thunderbirds and Huskies engaged in numerous physical battles.

    She scored a power-play goal on a beauty play pinching down from the post to the side of the U of S net to pot the tally. Former Medicine Hat Tigers captain Kris Russell scored many goals on that exact play, so that was a pretty sweet play.

    Actually, the two games Koroll played on Friday and Saturday were the best two games I ever saw her play. I saw her be a key member helping the Bears win the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League title in 2017 and advance to the Esso Cup national female midget AAA championship tournament.

    Believe it or not, I do want to see her do well and reach her full potential in the game.

Thunderbirds goalie Tory Micklash dives for a loose puck.

    I know I took jabs at her in a couple of pieces this season including the rivalry piece. When you are trying really hard to fire jabs at someone, it does mean they are one of your favourites, and honestly that is the case here whether you believe it or not. She is an all-world talent.

    Hockey players that have come through Prince Albert aim to emulate the romantic vision of the WHL’s Raiders of being the team of Mike Modano and Dave Manson - franchise where honour still matters. Koroll lived up to that this weekend.

Jessica Vance clamps on to a save for the Huskies.

    On the U Sports front, you always have to be mindful of how much time universities in Canada put into oversight. I apologize to all parties involved for any time they had to put into addressing the rivalry column that they didn’t want to. In the current world, I know how time becomes more and more a stressed commodity.

    Friday night while Game 1 was on at my home, I had to do catch up on other projects, and I completed the catch up.

    At the moment, I still feel the time I spent on the rivalry column would have been better spent doing a feature on a popular player to advance the series. Of course due to the community support in “Hockey Town North,” I have found Prince Albert area players are consistently popular, so talking to defender Morgan Willoughby and Vance of the Huskies are can’t miss subjects.

T-birds LW Ireland Perrott, left, avoids Huskies LW Shyan Elias.

    Koroll too is a can’t miss subject. I think the picture I shot of her and Willoughby, who is another former Bears captain, having a stare down in Game 2 will ultimately be a popular one in Prince Albert. It encompassed what that hockey community is about.

    During the Game 2 clash, Vance turned away 28 shots to take the setback in goal for the Huskies. Tory Micklash stopped 38 shots to get the shutout for the Thunderbirds.

    Both sides had multiple great scoring chances in Game 2, and they transitioned up and down the ice at a frightening pace. 

Emma Nutter controls the puck on the point for the Huskies.

    The officials put the whistles away for most of the game, and there were actually a lot of great hits too.

    While I think the rivalry column is a mistake at this time, I do not regret the exercise, because I believe something really special came out of it. If I didn’t write the rivalry column, maybe the games that happened wouldn’t have occurred.

    The Thunderbirds and Huskies proved U Sports women’s hockey can play in the big time and how great the game can be. It is society’s loss that interest in the game is only contained in a small niche group of people.

    Both teams proved they can handle a series being hyped like a rivalry series in the Western Hockey League, which of course is a guy’s league. Shame on anyone that doubted that.

The T-birds-Huskies series ended with genuine respectful handshakes.

    Being human, there was a small sliver in me that maybe doubted that, so shame on me.

    At the end of Game 2, the handshake line was a genuine one with respect, and you could tell the players on both the Thunderbirds and Huskies knew in their hearts they made their point.

    I would love to see U Sports women’s hockey reach the interest leagues like the Western Hockey League have. Today isn’t that day.

    The rest of us need to catch up to where the Thunderbirds and Huskies are, and the rivalry column wouldn’t carry the feeling of being a risk. It would just be another fun part of the game.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

-------                                     

    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.