By Kristi Patton /
One team’s loss has become the whole league’s gain as the Western Women’s Hockey League closed out 2008.
When the Calgary Oval X-Treme, champions for the past five seasons, took their first inter-league play loss since 2006, there were a lot of smiling faces. For years, the X-Treme have dominated play in the league with an iron fist of sorts with a record over the past five years of 101-2-2-2. Their talent runs deep with the lure of many of Canada’s top players who relocate to the central training location in Calgary for the ?national squad.
On Dec. 9, the Minnesota Whitecaps took points away from the powerhouse squad in a three-game battle across the border. The Whitecaps took the first game, a 9-2 loss, as a wake-up call and bounced back to defeat the X-treme 5-4 and then 4-3 in a shootout. League-leading scorer and X-Treme forward, Gina Kingsbury, was effectively taken off her game by the Whitecaps who kept the sniper at bay with only one goal and one assist in the X-Treme losses. Kingsbury has been averaging almost three points a game with 15 goals and 19 assists so far this season.
With the points being snatched away, it allowed room for the X-Treme’s northern rival, the Edmonton Chimos to take first place overall as they skate into the new year. Although, the X-Treme quickly grabbed back that honour back by beating their northern counterparts 3-1, in the second game on the calendar in 2009. This relegates the Chimos back into second-place for what they hope will be a close race for the overall WWHL title.
The year ended on a high note for the other Alberta-based WWHL team, the Strathmore Rockies.
Goaltender Ali Houston will be joining the regular roster after a tough battle with Hodgkins Lymphoma, which kept her sidelined since August of 2007.
“The experience was really draining, but I’m in remission now and ready to get back on the ice,” said Houston, who was a full-time player for the Rockies inaugural 2006/07 season. “As shocking as it all was, I feel great now. I think I’m better off for having gone through this.”
Houston completed six months of chemotherapy, followed by one month of radiation, finishing treatment in May.
“Ali’s commitment to the team is outstanding,” said Samantha Holmes, Rockies forward and president of the Rockies organization. “It was really tough not to have her on the bench last year, but she’s come back even stronger than before, and is such an inspiration for all the girls on the team.”
The other WWHL team, the B.C. Breakers, will have to look to 2009 for a win. The team finished the year without a single win and two overtime losses and sit in the basement of ?the standings. |