Prince Albert Northern Bears alumna stars at Huskie Women of Influence Breakfast

Kaitlin Willoughby, right, chats with Heather Morrison.

The centre stage spotlight of the University of Saskatchewan Huskie Women of Influence Breakfast was a deserving spot for Kaitlin Willoughby.

These days Willoughby skates for the Montreal Victoire as a checking forward in the PWHL. From 2013 to 2018, she was a star forward with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team skating to a legendary career where she still sits as the program’s second all-time leading scorer. Before that, she was a star with the Prince Albert Northern Bears, who were then known as the A & W Bears, of the SFU18AAAHL.

On Tuesday morning before a packed TCU Place in Saskatoon, Willoughby was the keynote speaker for the third annual Huskie of Women of Influence Breakfast that raises scholarship funds for the Huskies women’s programs. She took part in a sit down style question and answer session with emcee Heather Morrison, who is a local area broadcaster.

While Willoughby talked about her hockey journey through all parts of her life, she enjoyed the vibe at the breakfast.

“I think seeing this event, I think it is in its third year, and just to see the support of people in the community showing up for women athletes at U of S I think it is really incredible to see,” said Willoughby. “Events like this are what makes it possible to have female athletes play a sport at the university and be able to financially have a little bit of aid in getting their degree and also playing a sport.

“I’m all about supporting that and to see everyone turn up today and hear the stories of the athletes were just incredible.”

This story of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

Zablocki making mark on P.A.’s storied female hockey legacy

Stryker Zablocki, centre, sets to drop a ceremonial faceoff.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Stryker Zablocki hasn’t even graduated high school, and she has already done enough to ensure she will one day be part of Prince Albert Sports Hall of Fame.

When her hockey career wraps up, there is a high likelihood she will end up with multiple Sports Hall of Fame nods. With that noted, the folks in Prince Albert love following and celebrating their sports heroes. Zablocki, who turned 18-years-old just past the middle of January, has carried hero status for a good stretch already in her hometown of “Hockey Town North.”

On January 12 in Vantaa, Finland, Zablocki had an empty-net goal helping Canada blank the United States 3-0 in the gold medal game of the IIHF’s Under-18 Women’s Would Championship Tournament. The skilled forward, who stands 5-foot-6, topped the tournament with eight goals and 12 points and was named to the tournament’s all-star team. Zablocki played for Canada one year earlier too at the Under-18 Women’s Worlds capturing a bronze medal at that event.

Stryker Zablocki, centre, gets a puck from Justice Christensen.

Last Friday, Zablocki received a hero’s welcome at the Art Hauser Centre when she dropped the puck for a ceremonial faceoff before for that night’s WHL contest between the host Raiders and the Moose Jaw Warriors, which the Raiders claimed 4-1. During the second intermission, Zablocki signed autographs for a seemingly endless line of fans in the Johnny Bower Lobby.

The supporters all wanted to ensure Zablocki knew they were proud of her. The upbeat smile never left Zablocki’s face, and she made sure everyone that came to see her left in high spirits.

Growing up in Prince Albert, Zablocki stood out in hockey and track and field. Zablocki played hockey in boys’ leagues on defence up until joining the Foxes female under-15 AA team and then switching over to forward.

Stryker Zablocki, right, signs a young fan’s jersey.

When it came time to choose an under-18 AAA team to play on, she elected to move away from home and join the Regina Rebels for the start of the 2022-23 campaign. The Rebels had just come off of falling in the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League championship series to the Notre Dame Hounds in April of 2022.

In 57 career regular season games with the Rebels from 2022 to 2024, Zablocki piled up 65 goals and 40 assists for 105 points. She helped the Rebels win SFU18AAAHL titles in both her campaigns with the squad.

On April 28, 2024, Zablocki scoring the winning goal as the Rebels downed the North York Storm 2-1 in the title game of the Esso Cup tournament that crowns a female national under-18 AAA champion. Zablocki recorded eight goals and three assists in seven games at the Esso Cup claiming honours as tournament MVP.

A large group of fans came to see Stryker Zablocki, right.

Zablocki also made a name for herself representing Canada in track and field. In July of 2023, she took part in the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association Under-18 Championships in athletics held in San Jose, Costa Rica. She was part of Canada’s four member gold medal winner in the 4 X 400-metre female relay race.

As a Grade 11 student at Prince Albert’s Carlton Comprehensive High School in June of 2024, Zablocki won gold in the senior girls’ 100-metre and 200-metre races at the Saskatchewan High School Athletic Association Track and Field Championships held in Saskatoon.

In September of 2023, Zablocki committed to the Northeastern University Huskies Women’s Hockey team in the NCAA Division I ranks for the start of the 2026-27 campaign. Northeastern University is located in Boston, Massachusetts.

Stryker Zablocki, right, shares a laugh with a young supporter.

Zablocki elected to join the Bishop Kearney High School Selects for her Grade 12 campaign this season in Rochester, New York, to prepare herself for the change of moving down south. The Selects are full of players from across the United States and have one player from Slovakia.

Zablocki will return to Saskatchewan for the final part of the school year to once again compete in track and field.

In hockey, Zablocki continuing the legacy of great female players who come out of Prince Albert including Danny Stone, Kaitlin Willoughby of the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres, Jessica Vance, Brooke Hobson of the PWHL’s New York Sirens, and Abby Soyko. All play with incredible skill, heart and grit, which a signature for hockey players from the “Gateway to the North.”

Stryker Zablocki, centre, is pictured with two young fans.

Zablocki has the potential to write many more successful chapters in her hockey career. It wouldn’t be a surprise if one day she turned out to be the best female player to ever come out of P.A.

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

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PWHL buzz heartwarming

A PWHL post on Platform-X.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League is hot.

The new professional women’s hockey circuit had an outstanding first six days, which has created a lot of buzz. On New Year’s Day this past Monday, the first PWHL regular season contest was played at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. The host Toronto side dropped a 4-0 decision to New York before a sellout crowd of 2,537 spectators.

On Saturday at the Xcel Energy Centre in Saint Paul, Minn., the host Minnesota side drew a professional women’s hockey record crowd of 13,316 spectators to a 3-0 home opening win over Montreal. That broke the mark of 8,318 spectators that turned out Tuesday at TD Place in Ottawa to see the host side fall 3-2 in overtime to Montreal in the PWHL’s second ever contest.

It would be safe to say that women’s hockey has had a strong following since the sport made its debut in the Winter Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan. The United States 3-1 victory over Canada in the gold medal game of that women’s hockey tournament cemented the rivalry between those squads as real.

Since that tournament, the rivalry in women’s hockey between Canada and the United States is one of the greatest in all sports.

Women’s hockey has flourished since that time. Numerous elite level women’s hockey programs exist in the university and college ranks in Canada and the United States.

With those elements present, there shouldn’t have been any doubt an appetite would exist for professional women’s hockey specifically in North America. A year ago at this time, the women’s game at the professional level in North America was broken into two groups in the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association and the Premier Hockey Federation – formerly the National Women’s Hockey League.

Kaitlin Willoughby in action for the Huskies in 2017-18.

That all changed on June 30, 2023. In the 14 months leading up to that date, the PWHPA had been working with the Mark Walter Group and Billie Jean King Enterprises in a bid to launch its own league. Walter’s firm purchased the assets of the PHF on June 30, 2023.

That started the unified group down the road to hitting the ice with the six-team PWHL.

After the circuit hosted its first five games over six days starting on January 1, it feels like the honeymoon period is on. At this point, the PWHL keeps hitting homer after homer and everything is great.

On the media front, I’ve covered the women’s game since 1997 spanning the gamut going up and down of casual follower to heavily involved follower. 

Since moving to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, I covered the women’s game especially in Saskatchewan fairly heavily until the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic gripped the world causing shutdowns and stoppages in the world in North America starting on March 11, 2020.

When all sports in North America started to proceed more regularly in August of 2021, life took me away from covering women’s hockey like I did before the pandemic shutdowns happened. I’ve covered the sport only casually since that time.

Still, I am happy for everyone involved with the PWHL. I wanted to highlight a handful of those involved with the circuit, and the names might not be ones you would be expecting. For those that have followed my work, some of these names will come as no surprise.

Emily Clark meets a group of youngster in November 2018.

First, I was happy for New York head coach Howie Draper. When New York blanked Toronto 4-0 on New Year’s Day, Draper became the first person to collect a head coaching win in the history of the PWHL.

The 56-year-old put a tonne of time into the women’s game being hired as the inaugural head coach of the University of Alberta Pandas Women’s Hockey Team on September 1, 1997, and he was the only head coach the team had known until joining New York’s PWHL club on September 15, 2023.

Draper guided the Pandas to eight U Sports championships and 14 Canada West Championships. No program has won more U Sports or Canada West titles in women’s hockey than the Pandas.

He piled up 667 career wins as Pandas head coach and got to serve in various roles with Hockey Canada’s women’s program.

U Sports women’s hockey is often overshadowed by women’s hockey in the NCAA Division I ranks. In my opinion across each of those circuits as a whole, the coaches on the U Sports teams are as good or a step better than the coaches on the NCAA Division I squads.

Draper getting the first PWHL head coaching win feels like it validates that opinion.

Sophie Shirley in action for the Stars in 2014-15.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Kaitlin Willoughby. Willoughby is one of the all-time greats for the Prince Albert Northern Bears under-18 AAA team and the U of Saskatchewan Huskies Women’s Hockey Team. She played for Canada twice at the FISU Winter Universiade.

As rookie pro who turned 24-years-old in the 2018-19 campaign, Willoughby helped the Calgary Inferno win the Clarkson Cup as champions of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League.  

While Willoughby received rookie minutes, it was said that she did really well that season and needed to be elevated up the roster to play more minutes.

The CWHL folded after the 2018-19 campaign, and the PWHPA was formed in the aftermath. Willoughby hung in with the PWHPA for the next four seasons, and it would have been easy at any point during that time for her to focus on her nursing career and play the game at the recreational level.

She kept at it and is playing in the PWHL’s inaugural season at age 28.

I’m happy for Toronto forward Emily Clark. Clark grew up in Saskatoon as a hockey star, and she is an alumna of the Saskatoon Stars under-18 AAA team.

Jaime Bourbonnais in action in November 2018.

She is a well-known veteran on Canada’s Senior National Women’s Team. She is idolized by many young female players in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan and dare I say across Canada. Clark holds her hockey roots in her heart and enjoys when she can give back to the game in her hometown.

I’m happy for Boston forward Sophie Shirley. She was one of the greatest hockey discoveries I ever made when I saw her piling up points as the 15-year-old sophomore star with her hometown Stars.

Shirley has put up points everywhere she has gone in hockey and owns three NCAA Division I championship rings playing for the U of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey Team. 

She is still 24-years-old, and I can still see her reaching new heights in the game with this avenue.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Jaime Bourbonnais. I first met her at the 4 Nations Cup when it was held in Saskatoon in November of 2018. 

She was 20-years-old at that time and then one of the youngest players on Canada’s Senior National Women’s team.

Bourbonnais’s positivity was infectious, and the mood of any room she stepped into got a whole lot better. When it comes to hockey, I have a soft spot for offensive-defenders, and Bourbonnais plays that role so well it is easy to drift into just being a fan.

I’m happy for New York offensive-defender Brooke Hobson. As captain of her hometown Bears squad that won the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League title and advanced to the Esso Cup national championship tournament in 2016-17, Hobson was both confident and kick ass.

Brooke Hobson for the Bears in action in 2017.

When the Bears swept the Hartney, Man., based Westman Wildcats 2-0 in a best-of-three female under-18 AAA Western regional playdown series at the Art Hauser Centre, the spotlight fit Hobson just fine. 

With the Bears trailing Game 2 of that series 6-3 in the third period, Hobson potted a pair of goals that started a 7-6 comeback win.

She has a rocket shot from the point that seemed gifted to her by a Higher Power. Hobson worked hard to get all the good things that have come her way in hockey.

I’m happy for TSN broadcaster Claire Hanna. Hanna has always been a strong advocate for women’s sports.

She also has street cred having been a star libero with the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Women’s Volleyball Team winning three U Sports titles. 

Hanna was once a player in Canada’s national team program for volleyball.

Covering a circuit like the PWHL has been one of Hanna’s dreams. If she had Taylor Swift’s bank account, Hanna would be one of the owners of the circuit.

I’m happy for play-by-play broadcaster Daniella Ponticelli. The former play-by-play voice of the Huskies Women’s Hockey Team, Ponticelli was on the call for the PWHL’s first two games.

Ponticelli is best known for calling both hockey and football at a high level as a play-by-play voice, and it feels she was born for the moment to call PWHL games.

Howie Draper works the Pandas bench as head coach in Jan. 2023.

Again, everything about PWHL’s first six days was sensational. Here is a cheers to the continued success of the newest women’s professional hockey league.

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

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