By Dan Plouffe
The Nepean Wildcats are ready to make some noise at the highest levels when the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association provincial championships come to town April 4-7 alongside the IIHF women’s world championships.
“I’d be lying if I said we weren’t going in trying to win it,” smiles Wildcats Midget ‘AA’ coach Jody Campeau, whose team is one of about eight strong contenders for their division prize with no clear favourite. “We’ve been talking about winning provincials all year. That’s been the goal.”
The Midget ‘AA’ Wildcats earned a stellar 15-3-2 record in league play, while the Midget ‘A’ side was even better at 17-1-2. A big reason for those squads’ success was the influx of players into the Wildcats’ Provincial Women’s Hockey League Intermediate ‘AA’ program – six came from the Ottawa Senators organization, plus a couple from Gloucester-Cumberland and another pair from Cornwall.
“It really strengthens the team at the top, so it’s really hard to crack the lineup,” explains Campeau, highlighting a trickledown effect for the Midget ‘AA’ and ‘A’ groups. “The talent pool is a lot stronger.”
Many of the PWHL Wildcats – who grabbed home ice advantage in the first playoff round by finishing eighth of 20 teams in the regular season – have earned university hockey scholarships, but several from Midget ‘AA’ will also play university hockey, including Chelsea Lefebrve (Carleton), Mackenzie Irvine (Nipissing), Maggie Brennan (Laurentian) and Rebecca Bourgeois (University of Toronto).
“It’s been a really great season,” says goalie Kelsey Biron, identifying team chemistry as a key ingredient to success. “We bond really well. We’re all friends, so that helps a lot.”
The ‘AA’ Wildcat Midgets are driving to win the first provincial crown of their careers. Some have silver medals from Atom and Bantam, but no gold. The OWHA championships have always been on the road for Ottawa teams in the past, however, and being at home can be an especially big advantage in a tournament that features six matches in three days if they reach the final.
“It’s definitely survival of the fittest by the end,” notes Bourgeois, a defender. “It’ll be nice to sleep in your own bed and not have to travel. You won’t have the car legs going in.”
The Wildcats are enthusiastic about having a larger group of family and friends in the rink pulling for them, and they’re also pumped thanks to the added buzz this year with the women’s worlds coming to town, although many don’t yet have tickets since they’re waiting to see how their playing schedules line up.
“It’s so exciting,” Bourgeois adds. “Seeing all the banners up everywhere – it’s quite the hype.”
Many other local teams will be chasing provincial glory from the ‘AA’ through to ‘C’ competitive levels. Last year, Nepean beat Kanata 1-0 in the Peewee ‘C’ final, while Kanata earned Midget ‘C’ gold. The Gloucester-Cumberland Stars and Ottawa Ice also won 2012 OWHA medals.
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