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| Emily Clark, centre, pictured with some of her former Stars teammates. |
The underage player from the Saskatoon Stars became gold
medal winner at the Olympics.
Way back in September of 2009, Emily Clark joined the Stars
female under-18 AAA hockey team as an underage forward at age 13. As the
youngest player on the Stars, she had the last pick of jersey numbers and
selected number 13 as a reminder of her age when she first started skating with
the team.
On September 9, 2009, she scored a goal skating in her first
game with the Stars in a 3-2 exhibition win at the Gemini Arena over the Prince
Albert A & W Bears, who are now known as the Prince Albert Northern Bears.
Clark would turn 14-years-old in late November of 2009, and
she played in all of the Stars 28 regular season games collecting two goals and
two assists. Before joining the Stars, Clark played on boys teams in Saskatoon
in the Flyers Zone.
Her father, Del, was a long time coach and executive with
the Flyer program.
Actually, Emily Clark first began playing the game at age
three at a University of Saskatchewan Huskies kids camp run by legendary
Huskies men’s hockey head coach Dave Adolph.
An Olympic champion was born from that modest start.
 |
| An Emily Clark hockey card. |
Fast forward to the early morning hours last Thursday in
Saskatchewan time. Many in province were awake to watch Clark and her teammates
on Canada’s Senior National Women’s Hockey team capture the gold medal at the
Winter Olympics in Beijing, China.
Canada downed their forever rivals in the United States 3-2
in the gold medal final held at the Wukesong Arena.
At age 26, Clark has realized her ultimate hockey dream. The
power forward picked up two goals and an assist appearing in six of Canada’s
seven games.
Clark missed one preliminary round contest against the
Russian Olympic Committee due to an inconclusive coronavirus (COVID-19) test.
That goes down as a forever side note reminder that the 2022 Winter Olympics
were played with the world still in the grips of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between that first exhibition game victory with the Stars
and the gold medal win with Canada, Clark, who stands 5-foot-7, has piled up
many accolades in her hockey journey.
In the 2010-11 campaign, Clark helped the Stars win the
female division of the prestigious Mac’s Tournament in Calgary.
In 2011-12, she set the Stars record for most points scored
in one regular season at 60 coming off 26 goals and 34 assists in 26 regular
season games. That team record would ultimately be matched by Mackenna Parker
in the 2017-18 campaign.
Clark’s number 13 was retired by the Stars in December of
2019.
Clark put up big numbers playing for the Okanagan Hockey
Academy under-18 prep female team collecting 34 goals and 35 assists in 57
games in two seasons from 2012 to 2014.
 |
| A second Emily Clark hockey card. |
She proceeded to star for four seasons with the University
of Wisconsin Badgers Women’s Hockey team in the NCAA Division I ranks from 2014
to 2019. She left the Badgers for one season in 2017-18 to play for Canada at
the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where Canada took home
the silver medal falling 3-2 after a tiebreaking shootout to the United States
in the gold medal final.
With the Badgers, Clark played in 147 career games posting
70 goals and 76 assists. During her final season with the Badgers in 2018-19,
she helped them win an NCAA championship.
On the international scene, Clark helped Canada win gold at
two under-18 women’s world championships, three silver medals, one bronze medal
and one gold medal at women’s worlds to go with the silver at the 2018 Winter
Olympics.
The gold medal win at women’s worlds can in August of 2021,
when the tournament was held in a bubble environment in Calgary.
Following her time with the Stars, Clark usually wore number
26, which is double the number 13.
No matter where Clark goes in hockey, she still keeps strong
ties to her home city of Saskatoon and to Saskatchewan as a province. Some of
her favourite teammates from her time in the sport include former Stars
teammates like Marley Ervine, Lauren Zary, Sara Greschner and Brooke Mutch.
Clark made numerous friends on the men’s side of the game
growing up including Rourke Chartier, who plays with the AHL’s Belleville
Senators and Evan Fiala, who plays for the U of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s team
in the U Sports ranks.
Everywhere Clark has gone to play hockey, she has been an
enduring and favourite teammate. She is also taken to heart because her style
of play mirrors that of Wendel Clark, who starred for the WHL’s Saskatoon
Blades and the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs. Emily and Wendel are not related.
 |
| Emily Clark signs autographs for youngster in November of 2018. |
In the Saskatchewan hockey community and Saskatoon as a
city, it seems there is just a one or two degrees of separation from knowing
someone that knows Emily and her family.
That connection added to how awe inspiring it was to see
Clark and her team to realize their golden moment at the Winter OIympics.
In today’s world that is engulfed in news events that can
seem chaotic, it felt that much more special to see Clark realize her ultimate
gold medal dream on the sports world’s biggest stage.
Memorial Cup gets new dates, WHL schedule
adjusted
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| The Acadie-Bathurst Titan celebrate their Memorial Cup win in 2018. |
Last
Wednesday, the CHL announced its Memorial Cup championship tournament was being
pushed back.
The CHL
announced the change with its three member leagues in the OHL, QMJHL and WHL
have to extend regular season schedules to play games that were postponed due
to challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHL has also dealt with
postponements due to bad weather.
The
upcoming Memorial Cup is being hosted by the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs in
Saint John, New Brunswick. The event was originally scheduled to be held from
June 4 to 13, but it will now be held from June 20 to 29.
The changes
to the Memorial Cup’s schedule were expected.
In late
January, the QMJHL said it intended to play its full 68-game regular season
that will conclude on May 1. The QMJHL plays are slated to be held from May 5
to June 15.
Last
Thursday, the WHL announced its regular season that was originally slated to
end on April 3 will now end on April 17. The adjustment was made to allow the
circuit’s member teams to get in their postponed contests in order for each
club to play a 68-game regular season.
If any
standing tiebreaking games need to be played, they will be held on April 19.
The WHL
playoffs are schedule to begin April 22 and could potentially run to June 14,
if a series deciding Game 7 is needed for the WHL Championship series.
The WHL is
also adjusting its playoff format. Instead of using the division format that
was used from 2015 to 2020, the circuit is going back to a conference playoff
format that was last used in 2014.
That means,
the two division winners in each conference will be seeded one and two in their
respective conference brackets. After the division winners, the next six teams
in each conference with the most standings points will also make the
post-season.
Clubs
advancing in each round of the playoffs will be reseeded based on regular
season points. Each round of the WHL playoffs will be contested in
best-of-seven series.
Controversies plentiful for 2022 Winter
Olympics
Controversies
seemed to come out of the woodworks to plague the 2022 Winter Olympics that
were held in Beijing, China.
They seemly
took flight on February 2, which was two days before the games themselves
began. That initial one came with Belgian skeleton racer Kim Meylemans asked
over Instagram for the International Olympic Committee to free her from one of
Beijing’s COVID-19 isolation facilities.
She was
placed there instead of the Athletes’ Village isolation centre.
Meylemans
tested positive for COVID-19 upon arriving in China. The Belgian delegation
stepped in quickly, and Meylemans was moved to the Village one day later.
Some of the
controversies will continue to play out after the games came to a conclusion on
Sunday.
In Canada,
the games will be remembered for the country taking home a total of 26 medals
including four gold medals, eight silver medals and 14 bronze medals.
Overall,
the 2022 Winter Olympics might be best remembered on the world stage for the
controversy swirling around 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva,
who was favoured to win gold in the women’s singles competition.
Before the
women’s singles event took place, news surfaced Valieva tested positive for
trimetazidine, which is a heart drug used to prevent angina and also acts as an
oxygen booster. The drug is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Due to
Valieva being a minor, it was decided that she would be allowed to compete as
the investigation around the positive test continued.
She
collapsed in the free skate and finished fourth in the women’s singles event.
Russian 17-year-old teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova finished
first and second respectively, but the medal wins were far from a dream finish
for either athlete.
As for
other controversies, we had Russian president Vladimir Putin looking like he
was going to fall asleep when Ukraine was introduced during the opening
ceremonies.
There were
a couple of questionable video reviews that gave China gold medals in speed
skating and China trying to censor an athlete from Finland for showing flooding
in her part of the Athletes Village on social media.
On Sunday,
Yahoo Sports posted a list of the various controversies, and that post can be
found by clicking right here.
Blades’ Crnkovic retakes WHL scoring lead
 |
| Kyle Crnkovic retook the WHL scoring lead. |
Saskatoon
Blades star left-winger Kyle Crnkovic retook the lead in the WHL scoring race
with a three-point night on Sunday.
Entering
play on Sunday, Crnkovic trailed Red Deer Rebels overage left-winger Arshdeep
Bains by one point for top spot in the scoring race.
Playing
before 5,737 spectators at the Scotiabank Saddledown in Calgary against the
host Hitmen on Sunday, Crnkovic potted two goals and an assist to power the
Blades to a 4-1 regular season victory.
Thanks to
that offensive outburst, the Chestermere, Alta., product leads the WHL in
scoring with 73 points coming off 32 goals and 41 assists. Crnkovic’s goal and
point totals are career highs.
Bains sits
second in the scoring race with 71 points coming off 25 goals and 46 assists.
The Blades
also received goals from centres Trevor Wong and Trevor Robins, who has a
signed NHL entry-level contract with the San Jose Sharks.
Zac Funk
had the lone reply for the Hitmen.
Rookie
Ethan Chadwick made 23 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Blades
(27-18-1-1). Ethan Buenaventura turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net
for the Hitmen (18-22-5-2).
Blades
sophomore left-winger Vaughn Watterodt and Hitmen 20-year-old centre Blake
Allan engaged in a first period fight.
The Blades
return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Brandon to take on the 25-15-3-2
Wheat Kings (7 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 600 CJWW).
Vitelli nets pair in Raiders 4-1 win over
Tigers, other notes
 |
| Reece Vitelli scored twice for the Raiders on Monday. |
Captain
Reece Vitelli got his Prince Albert Raiders back in the win column.
On Monday,
Vitelli scored twice in the third period to lift the Raiders to a 4-1 regular
season victory over the host Medicine Hat Tigers playing before 2,390
spectators at Co-Op Place.
The Tigers
went ahead 1-0 on a goal from Owen MacNeil at the 7:08 mark of the first
period.
Before the
opening frame ended, Sloan Stanick tallied for the Raiders to even the game’s
score at 1-1.
After a
scoreless second period, Vitelli scored twice in the third to put the Raiders
up 3-1. Veteran centre Keaton Sorensen rounded out the contest’s scoring an
empty-net goal for the visitors with three minutes remaining in the third.
Tikhon
Chaika stopped 23 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Raiders (18-26-2-1).
Garin Bjorklund turned away 19-of-22 shots to take the setback in net for the
Tigers (9-33-3-1).
Raiders
star centre Ozzy Wiesblatt and Tigers left-winger Brayden Boehm engaged in a
second period fight.
Inside the
final 31 seconds of the third, Raiders defenceman Trevor Thurston received a
major for cross-checking, a major for charging and a 10-minute misconduct. The
two major penalties will be automatically be reviewed by the WHL office for a
possible suspension.
The Raiders
win on Monday unofficially marked the 572nd career regular season
head coaching victory for Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. The win total
includes Habscheid’s time with the Kamloops Blazers, Kelowna Rockets, and the Chilliwack
Bruins/Victoria Royals franchise. Habscheid’s first season holding a WHL team’s
head coaching duties came in the 1997/98 campaign with the Blazers.
If that
total gets verified as official, Habscheid would equal Mike Williamson for the fifth
most career regular season head coaching victories in the history of the WHL.
Williamson collected his head coaching victories working behind the bench of
the Portland Winterhawks, Calgary Hitmen and Tri-City Americans from the
1999-2000 campaign to the 2017-18 campaign.
The Raiders
return to action on Wednesday when they travel to Calgary to take on the 18-22-5-2
Hitmen (6 p.m. Saskatchewan time, 900 CKBI).
- Prince
Albert product and 16-year-old left-winger Tanner Howe is having a strong
season with the WHL’s Regina Pats. In 40 regular season games, Howe has 19
goals and 23 assists for 42 points.
- A
spectacular season has vaulted Regina Rebels forward Alexis Petford into a tie
for 10th place on the all-time career regular season scoring list
for the Saskatchewan Female Under-18 AAA Hockey League. In 28 regular season
games in the current campaign, Petford has 75 points on 37 goals and 38
assists. All of those totals are career highs for Petford, who is in her final
season of under-18 AAA eligibility. In 90 career SFU18AAAHL regular season
games, Petford has 126 points coming on 62 goals and 64 assists and is the
Rebels all-time career regular season scoring leader. She has equalled Lauren
Zary for 10th on the SFU18AAAHL career regular season scoring list.
Zary collected her 126 points on 44 goals and 82 assists playing 103 career
regular season games for the Saskatoon Stars from 2008 to 2012. The Rebels have
one game remaining on their regular season schedule when they travel to Wilcox
on Wednesday to face the Notre Dame Hounds.
- The
B.C. Division leading Kamloops Blazers clinched a berth in the WHL playoffs,
when they downed the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips 4-3 after a
tiebreaking shootout on Monday at the Sandman Centre in Kamloops. The Blazers
took the tiebreaking shootout 2-1. The Blazers improved to 35-13-2 with the
win, while the Silvertips record moved to 35-7-2-5. The Silvertips came into
the contest with a WHL playoff berth already locked up.
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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