Parker close to becoming SFMAAAHL’s second all-time leading scorer

Mackenna Parker is set to move to second in SFMAAAHL career points.

    Mackenna Parker is on the cusp of achieving a huge milestone, but the skilled centre will have to wait a bit to achieve it.

    The 17-year-old captain of the Saskatoon Stars is one point away for equaling Alyssa Wiebe for second all-time in career regular season scoring for the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League. Parker has 72 goals and 69 assists for 141 career points in 94 regular season games.

Wiebe piled up 74 goals and 68 assists for 142 points playing 55 regular games at forward for the Notre Dame Hounds from 2006 to 2008 in Wilcox.

    With the way the SFMAAAHL regular season schedule has worked out, Parker will have to wait a bit for her next chance to pass Wiebe. The Stars next regular season game is set for Dec. 16, when they travel to Swift Current to face the Diamond Energy Wildcats.

    The SFMAAAHL is in its 12^th season, so what Parker is about to do can be viewed as a significant accomplishment.

    It also provides an opportunity to reflect on some recent women’s hockey history.

Mackenna Parker has been on fire this season.

    Wiebe, who is from Saskatoon, played for the Hounds the first two seasons the SFMAAAHL existed. She played the first games Canada’s under-18 women’s team ever took the ice for in 2007 before moving on to the university ranks.

    She played four seasons in the National Collegiate Athletic Association with the now defunct University of North Dakota women’s hockey team at the Division I level piling up 49 goals and 66 assists in 141 overall games.

    Following her hockey days at UND, Wiebe returned home to Saskatoon and suited up for the Saskatoon Valkyries of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League for the past two seasons. She became a star receiver and helped the Valkyrie win a league championship in 2016. Wiebe was part of Saskatchewan’s team that won gold at Football Canada’s inaugural Senior Women’s National Championship tournament in July of 2016.

    Wiebe, who is now 27-year-olds, showed just insane athletic ability playing football for the Valkyries. That same athletic ability showed through, when he played high level hockey.

    Parker, who is playing out her final season of midget AAA eligibility, will pass Wiebe, but likely won’t catch Olivia Howe for the top spot as the SFMAAAHL’s career all-time leading scorer.

    Howe, who is from Moose Jaw, played forward for the Hounds from 2008 to 2012 and piled up 107 goals and 100 assists for 207 points in 106 career regular season games. She is the SFMAAAHL’s career leader in goals, assists and points and was a consistent high point producer in each season she played in the league.

Mackenna Parker will play for Canada’s under-18 team in January.

    Following her time with the Hounds, Howe, who is now 23-years-old, played four seasons with the Clarkson University Golden Knights women’s hockey team in the NCAA Division I ranks from 2012 to 2016 piling up 42 goals and 58 assists in 152 overall games. She helped the Golden Knights win the NCAA championship in 2014.

    Parker has been on a tear to start the season with the Stars. She leads the SFMAAAHL in scoring with 23 goals and 20 assists in 13 games played and needs one more point to match her career high in points set last season.

    Besides accomplishing huge milestones with the Stars, Parker will play for Canada’s women’s team at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Under-18 Women’s World Championships, which runs this coming January 6-13 in Dmitrov, Russia.

Dorsett had a great run through WHL and NHL

Derek Dorsett, centre, during down time at the 2007 Memorial Cup.

    Feisty forward Derek Dorsett decided retire from the NHL due to an injury issue with his back.

    About a year ago, the Kindersley, Sask., product underwent a cervical-fusion surgery to heal up a damaged disk in his back. About a week ago, Dorsett’s doctors in Los Angeles, Calif., discovered another herniated disk near the rebuilt section of his back, and he was advised to not play again. The NHL’s Vancouver Canucks officially announced Dorsett’s retirement on Thursday.

    Dorsett had gotten out to a great start with the Canucks netting seven goals and two assists in 20 regular season games. After spending his first professional season with the American Hockey League’s Syracuse Crunch in 2007-08, Dorsett started playing in the NHL on a full-time basis with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2008-09.

    He appeared in 515 regular season games with the Blue Jackets, New York Rangers and Canucks netting 51 goals, 76 assists and 1,314 penalty minutes. Over his hockey career, Dorsett, who stands 6-feet and weighs 192 pounds, became one of the game’s best agitators, but he was also viewed as one of the best teammates no matter where his career took him.

    You hated to play against him, but you would love it if he was traded to your team.

    At one time, it didn’t appear an NHL career would be in the cards for Dorsett. His services were offered to every team in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League, and only the Swift Current Legionnaires stepped up to take him.
    With the Legionnaires in 2003-04, Dorsett collected 19 goals, 34 assists and 132 penalty minutes in 42 regular season games. That season wasn’t enough at that time to ensure him a spot in the WHL.

    As a result, he started the 2004-05 campaign in the junior A ranks with his hometown Kindersley Klippers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

    Dorsett’s career path changed on Nov. 19, 2004, when he jumped on board the bus of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers outside the 7-Eleven in Kindersley. He dressed for that night’s road clash with the Blades in Saskatoon and picked up an assist in a 6-2 Tigers victory.

    During his career in “the Gas City,” Dorsett recorded 49 goals and 79 assists in 180 regular season games. To this day, he still remains an all-time fan favourite among the Tigers faithful.

    Dorsett was a heart and soul player with the Tigers who agitated opponents, scored, blocked shots, fought guys that were much bigger than him and was still effective playing with injuries.

    He set the emotional tone and the intensity for the Tigers every time he stepped on the ice. Dorsett always gave his best.

    If something needed to be said in the dressing room to get the Tigers going, Dorsett was entrusted with being the guy that said something.

    Dorsett played a huge role in capturing the WHL championship in 2007 and advancing to the final of that year’s Memorial Cup championship tournament before falling 3-1 to the host Vancouver Giants.

    In the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, he was selected in the seventh round and 189^th overall by the Blue Jackets, which opened the door to his NHL career.

    Dorsett’s 31^st birthday is Dec. 20, so he has a big next chapter to live in life. Let’s hope he enjoys lots of great days with his wife, Allison, and their two young sons Dylan and Ethan.

SHA should rethink boundary changes for female game

    If you’re involved in female hockey in Saskatchewan, you’ve likely heard through mainstream media outlets that the Saskatchewan Hockey Association is intent on going ahead with plans to make Saskatoon and Regina geographical subdivisions for the 2018-19 campaign.

    Basically, girls from rural Saskatchewan will be unable to go to Saskatoon and Regina to play on those cities’ teams. The SHA is putting that rule in place to push rural minor hockey associations to create their own female teams and leagues.

    When girls become old enough to play at the midget AAA level, they can go play for any of the provinces eight female midget AAA programs.

    I normally try to avoid minor hockey arguments and minor hockey issues. In the past, I find involvement in minor hockey politics just tends to bring me down.

    This issue has been in the news a lot, so I figured I would say something.

    I can see what the SHA is trying to do in theory, and there is concern about getting numbers up in rural areas and allowing rural girls to play closer to home.

    Through all sorts of social media channels, I’ve seen great push back against this decision. Actually, it is hard to find a voice that agrees with the SHA.

    I’ve seen numerous former players, current coaches, family members of current coaches and players, and executives from minor hockey associations speak out against this. There have been a number of people I know speak out against this move, who I deeply trust when it comes to judgments about the female game.

    I saw the martial from the Saskatoon Comets regarding this decision. They noted from experience that next season rural Minor Hockey Associations won’t develop a female program of any kind and will welcome girls to join their boys’ teams. The Comets said girls will quit if the appropriate level of play in girls hockey isn’t available to them.

    The Comets said the rural Minor Hockey Associations cited a number of reasons for not starting a new female committee including too much work for too short of a deadline, shortage of available ice, don’t know where to start and no one on their current boards have an interest in female hockey. I can respect these arguments, because life in the current day is way more stressed than it has ever been.

    There is a big concern girls in rural areas will decide to quit and take up another sport or activity as opposed to playing on a boys’ team. When players get old enough that body contact is allowed, there are a lot of girls that don’t want to play on boys teams if hitting is involved.

    I saw one post from a mom that lives in Pilot Butte, which is just outside and almost now borders with Regina, be downright upset that her daughter would have to go to Weyburn to play next season, which is a lot further away. I don’t like the idea of cutting Saskatoon and Regina off from their suburb bedroom communities.

    I know long time veteran SHA general manager Kelly McClintock has taken a lot of heat over this.

    I feel comfortable siding with the large number of people in the female game that are against these changes. Since I moved to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, I have been impressed with how much everyone involved with female hockey pulls in the same direction. People from rival teams have respect for each other and hope players from the rival side do well.

    You do not see that type of unity on the boys’ side of the game, and it is refreshing to see that unity in the female game.

    I trust the judgment with those involved with female hockey in Saskatchewan and hope the SHA will delay the border changes or rethink them entirely. At the moment, I believe these border changes will hurt the female game in Saskatchewan.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com. A special shout out thanks to the Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats female midget AAA team, who provided the information about Dorsett’s one season with the Swift Current Legionnaires midget AAA team in 2003-04. That piece of information was missing in a previous version of this post, and it was great to include it.

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