2009 CIS women's hockey championship preview

No. 1 Martlets overwhelming favourites to repeat

ANTIGONISH, N.S. (CIS) – To say that the defending national champion McGill Martlets are the overwhelming favourites to once again capture the CIS women’s hockey title this week might be the understatement of the year in CIS sports.

Championship website: www.universitysport.ca/e/championships/w_hockey/2009 

The six-team championship, hosted by St. Francis Xavier University, gets under way Thursday at 4 p.m. Atlantic with the first of six round-robin duels, and concludes Sunday at 8 p.m. with the gold-medal final.

The national final can be seen on The Score television network (two-hour tape delayed to 10 p.m.), while SSN Canada will webcast all nine games from the tournament.

After knocking on the door for several years thanks in large part to the stellar play of Olympic gold-medalist goaltenders Kim St-Pierre and Charline Labonté – including a pair of silver-medal finishes and four bronzes, the Martlets finally reached the top of the CIS women’s hockey world a year ago in Ottawa when they blanked the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 2-0 in the title match.

Labonté, a native of Boisbriand, Que., who is in her third season with the team, earned the gold-medal shutout over the Hawks at last winter’s championship and was also in net for shutout wins over Manitoba (6-0) and St. Francis Xavier (3-0) in round-robin play, making her the only netminder in history to go the entire CIS tournament without allowing a single goal.

A gold medalist for Canada at the 2006 Olympics in Italy, Labonté was named on Tuesday as a Team Canada member for the upcoming 2009 IIHF world championship (April 4-12, Hameenlinna, Finland). The five-foot-nine goalie is one of many all-stars on a talented McGill squad that travels to Antigonish, N.S., riding a 51-game win streak against CIS opponents dating back to December 30, 2007 (a 2-1 OT loss to Alberta), led all 17 national coaches polls in 2008-09 and has topped 29 straight CIS rankings over the past two seasons. The Martlets went 33-0 overall versus CIS rivals this year including an 18-0 mark in conference play and a 4-0 record in the playoffs.

Third-year defenceman Catherine Ward (Mt. Royal, Que.), the CIS rookie of the year in 2006-07 and an all-Canadian each of her first two seasons at McGill, also made the Team Canada roster for the IIHF “Worlds”, marking her first selection to the senior national team after three stints with the Canadian under-22 squad, where Canada won a silver in Germany last January after capturing gold medals the previous two years.

Sophomore Ann-Sophie Bettez (Sept-Îles, Que.), the top CIS freshman a year ago, won the QSSF scoring race this season with 24 goals and 30 assists for 54 points in just 18 conference games, setting league records in each category. The five-foot-four forward finished seven points back of Alberta’s Tarin Podloski (23-38-61) for the CIS scoring title, but played five less games.

Rearguard Cathy Chartand (Lac Nominingue, Que.), the 2008 CIS championship MVP, was one of four Martlets who helped Canada claim gold at the inaugural Winter Universiade women’s hockey tournament last month in Harbin, China, along with forwards Vanessa Davidson (Kirkland, Que.), Alyssa Cecere (Brossard, Que.) and Caroline Hill (Dorval, Que.).

A former senior national team member, Chartrand was Canada’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremonies at the Games and served as captain of the hockey team in Harbin.

Highlighting the 2008-09 class of McGill recruits is forward Marie-Andrée Leclerc-Auger (Sherbrooke, Que.), who finished second in Quebec and fourth in the nation in scoring with 46 points (18-28-46) in 18 outings on her way to QSSF rookie-of-the-year honours.

“Our expectations are exactly the same as they were last year,” said Peter Smith, who owns a 259-104-27 overall record in his 10 seasons as head coach at McGill and a member of the national team coaching staff since 2005, including the 2006 Olympic gold-medal squad. “We’ve had a great season thus far and we’re playing our best hockey right now. We need to play well for three more games and we expect top performances from our players this week.”

The five teams that face the unenviable task of preventing a McGill repeat in Antigonish are No. 2 Wilfrid Laurier (OUA champions), the No. 3 Manitoba Bisons (Canada West champions), No. 4 Moncton Aigles Bleues (AUS champions), No. 5 and tournament host St. Francis Xavier X-Women (AUS finalists), and No. 6 Ottawa Gee-Gees (QSSF finalists).

McGill, Manitoba and StFX will battle in pool A for the round-robin portion of the tournament, while Laurier, Moncton and Ottawa form pool B. The top team from each group at the end of round-robin play advances to Sunday’s national final.

Opening day will see the Golden Hawks and Gee-Gees kick off the competition at 4 p.m., and the Martlets open their title defence against the Bisons at 7 p.m. The Aigles Bleues and X-Women will take the ice on Friday against the losers of the Thursday duels.

Third-seeded Manitoba enters the Nationals following an epic 2-1 series win over perennial powerhouse Alberta in the best-of-three Canada West final. Freshman Nellie Minshull (Pierson, Man.) scored in triple overtime on Sunday to give the Bisons their first-ever conference title.

Alberta had missed only one CIS tournament prior to this year – in 2001 – since the inaugural championship in 1998 and holds the record for most CIS titles, winning six of the first 11 banners.

Manitoba is led by fourth-year goaltender Stacey Corfield (Winnipeg), who allowed only five goals on 113 shots in the series against Alberta as the Pandas outshot the Bisons 38-11 in Game 1, 27-17 in Game 2 and 48-20 in Game 3.

Corfield was the lone Bison to make the trip to China for the Universiade but played a major role in Canada’s success, picking up five of the seven wins including a 3-1 victory over China in the tournament final.

“We are excited to return to the CIS championship. It is a real privilege to represent Canada West as conference champion,” said fifth-year head coach Jon Rempel, who has led Manitoba to three bronze medals in three appearances at the CIS tournament since he took over the program in 2004-05. “I expect the calibre of hockey to be higher than ever as each team has fought hard to get here.”

Fifth-ranked StFX, which rounds out the pool A entries, had its best showing in history at the CIS championship in 2006, the only previous time the tournament was played in Antigonish, finishing fourth following a heartbreaking 3-2 shootout loss to McGill in the bronze-medal match.

The X-Women have plenty of firepower on offence with five players averaging over a point a game in conference play, including fifth-year seniors Christina Davis (18-15-33) and Brayden Ferguson (16-17-33) who both had a team-leading 33 points.

Ferguson (Toronto), who merited CIS player-of-the-year honours last season, was the lone StFX representative at the Harbin Games. The X-Women captain is a five-time AUS all-star and ended her career as the conference all-time leader in points (196) and goals (105).

StFX, which lost 4-2 to Moncton in the AUS final, faced pool A rival McGill once this season, dropping a 5-1 non-conference decision in Montreal back on November 21.

The No. 2 Golden Hawks are the pre-championship favourites in pool B.

Laurier’s domination in the OUA rivals that of McGill in the Quebec conference. The Hawks captured their sixth straight Ontario title last weekend and lost only once this year in conference play, a 3-2 setback against York in their regular season finale back on February 21, when two-time all-Canadian rearguard Andrea Bevan (Collingwood, Ont.) and forward Andrea Ironside (Collingwood, Ont.) were away at the Universiade in China.

The Hawks, who have reached the national final three of the last four years including their lone CIS title in 2004-05, earned their ticket for the 2009 championship following a hard-fought, 2-1 series win over Guelph in the best-of-three OUA final in which all three games were one-goal affairs.

“This kind of series is a great prep for the Nationals,” said six-year Laurier head coach Rick Osborne following the series clinching win. “Our team played well and was able to push themselves to their limits and outlasted Guelph.”

Fourth-seeded Moncton is enjoying the best season in team history under second-year head coach Denis Ross. The Aigles Bleues claimed their first-ever regular-season title with a stellar 20-0-2 record and captured their second AUS banner in three years.

Leading the Aigles Bleus is third-year forward Mariève Provost (Laval, Que.), the lone Universiade gold medalist on the Moncton roster and the AUS scoring champion this season with 19 goals and 37 points in only 19 contests. Provost was an all-Canadian as a freshman in 2006-07 when she tallied 47 points in 21 games.

“We are ready for this tournament,” said Ross. “I did not see Laurier or Ottawa play this year, but the Aigles did beat Ottawa 6-5 two years ago at the CIS championship. I know we can play with these teams and represent the AUS well.”

The No. 6 Gee-Gees qualified for the CIS tourney thanks to a Brittany Jones (Ottawa) goal in double overtime in Game 3 of their best-of-three QSSF semi-final against Carleton. All three games from the series were decided in overtime.

Third-year forward Kayla Hottot (Sombra, Ont.) represented uOttawa at the Harbin Games, along with head coach Shelley Coolidge – an assistant in China – and assistant coach Kim Thompson.

Goaltender Jessika Audet, who won CIS gold with Concordia back in 1998 and 1999, returned to university hockey at the age of 31 a year ago and is the oldest current uOttawa varsity student-athlete.

TEAM PROFILES

No. 1 McGill Martlets
Head Coach: Peter Smith (10th season)
Regular season record: 18-0
Regular season standing: 1st QSSF
Playoff record: 4-0
Playoff finish: QSSF champions
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): No. 1
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 1 (all 17 polls)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 17
Conference award winners: Ann-Sophie Bettez (MVP), Marie-Andrée Leclerc-Auger (rookie), Peter Smith (coach)
Conference 1st team all-stars: Ann-Sophie Bettez (F), Vanessa Davidson (F), Catherine Ward (D), Cathy Chartrand (D), Charline Labonté (G)
Conference 2nd team all-stars: Marie-Andrée Leclerc-Auger (F)
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 10th  
CIS championship all-time record: 17-10 (.630)
CIS championship best result: 1-time champions (2008)
CIS championship last appearance: 2008 (champions)
CIS championship sequence: 7th straight appearance

No. 2 Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks
Head Coach: Rick Osborne (6th season)
Regular season record: 26-1
Regular season standing: 1st OUA
Playoff record: 4-1
Playoff finish: OUA champions
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): No. 2
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 2 (10 weeks – including last 5)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 17
Conference award winners: Andrea Bevan (MVP), Rick Osborne (coach)
Conference 1st team all-stars: Andrea Bevan (D), Andrea Ironside (F), Laura Barch (F), Liz Knox (G)
Conference 2nd team all-stars: none
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 8th 
CIS championship all-time record: 13-8 (.619)
CIS championship best result: 1-time champions (2005)
CIS championship last appearance: 2008 (finalists)
CIS championship sequence: 6th straight appearance

No. 3 Manitoba Bisons
Head Coach: Jon Rempel (5th season)
Regular season record: 21-2-1
Regular season standing: 2nd Canada West
Playoff record: 4-1
Playoff finish: Canada West champions
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): No. 4
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 2 (3 weeks)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 17
Conference award winners: none
Conference 1st team all-stars: Stacey Corfield (G), Addie Miles (F), Brenna Leary (D)
Conference 2nd team all-stars: none
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 4th 
CIS championship all-time record: 6-3 (.667)
CIS championship best result: 3-time bronze medalists (2008, 2007, 2005)
CIS championship last appearance: 2008 (bronze)
CIS championship sequence: 3rd straight appearance, 4th in 5 years

No. 4 Moncton Aigles Bleues
Head Coach: Denis Ross (2nd season)
Regular season record: 20-0-2
Regular season standing: 1st AUS
Playoff record: 2-0
Playoff finish: AUS champions
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): No. 7
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 6 (1 week)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 14
Conference award winners: Kathy Desjardins (MVP), Denis Ross (coach)
Conference 1st team all-stars: Kathy Desjardins (G), Mariève Provost (F)
Conference 2nd team all-stars: Kristine LaBrie (F), Geneviève David (D)
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 2nd
CIS championship all-time record: 1-2 (.333)
CIS championship best result: 5th (2007)
CIS championship last appearance: 2007 (5th)
CIS championship sequence: 2nd appearance in 3 years (2nd in history)

No. 5 St. Francis Xavier X-Women
Head Coach: David Synishin (7th season)
Regular season record: 19-3-2
Regular season standing: 2nd AUS
Playoff record: 1-1
Playoff finish: AUS finalists
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): No. 6
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 5 (7 weeks)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 17
Conference award winners: none
Conference 1st team all-stars: Brayden Ferguson (F), Christina Davis (F), Marilynn Hay (D), Laura Grant (D)
Conference 2nd team all-stars: none
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 8th
CIS championship all-time record: 2-19 (.095)
CIS championship best result: 4th (2006)
CIS championship last appearance: 2008 (6th)
CIS championship sequence: 2nd straight appearance, 4th in 5 years

No. 6 Ottawa Gee-Gees
Head Coach: Shelley Coolidge (6th season)
Regular season record: 8-8-2
Regular season standing: 2nd QSSF
Playoff record: 2-3
Playoff finish: QSSF finalists
Final Top 10 ranking (Feb. 24): unranked
Best Top 10 ranking (17 weeks): No. 8 (2 weeks)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (17 weeks): 12
Conference award winners: Danika Smith (student-athlete)
Conference 1st team all-stars: none
Conference 2nd team all-stars: Fannie Desforges (F), Erika Pouliot (F), Kelsey de Wit (D), Jessika Audet (G)
CIS championship appearances (inaugural championship 1998): 4th
CIS championship all-time record: 2-7 (.222)
CIS championship best result: 1-time finalists (2004)
CIS championship last appearance: 2008 (5th)
CIS championship sequence: 3rd straight appearance, 4th in 6 years

SEEDINGS & SCHEDULE (All times LOCAL: Atlantic Time)

Pool A
1. McGill
3. Manitoba
5. StFX

Pool B
2. Wilfrid Laurier
4. Moncton
6. Ottawa

Wednesday, March 18
12:00 Media Conference
18:30 All-Canadian Banquet

Thursday, March 19
16:00 Pool B #1: No. 2 Wilfrid Laurier vs. No. 6 Ottawa (SSN Canada webcast)
19:30 Pool A #1: No. 1 McGill vs. No. 3 Manitoba (SSN Canada webcast)

Friday, March 20
16:00 Pool B #2: No. 4 Moncton vs. Loser Pool B #1 (SSN Canada webcast)   
19:30 Pool A #2: No. 5 StFX vs. Loser Pool A #1 (SSN Canada webcast)  

Saturday, March 21
16:00 Pool B #3: No. 4 Moncton vs. Winner Pool B #1 (SSN Canada webcast)  
19:30 Pool A #3: No. 5 StFX vs. Winner Pool A #1 (SSN Canada webcast) 

Sunday, March 22
10:00 5th Place (SSN Canada webcast)
14:00 Bronze (SSN Canada webcast)
20:00 Final (THE SCORE * / SSN Canada webcast)

* 2-hour tape delay to 10 pm Atlantic / 9 pm Eastern

- CIS -

For more information please contact:

Michel Bélanger
Communications manager
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Ph: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334
belanger@universitysport.ca
www.universitysport.ca

Krista McKenna
Sports Information Director
St. Francis Xavier University
Off: (902) 867-5381
Cell: (902) 870-4207
kmckenna@stfx.ca