Team Manitoba Off to Finals at CWG

The Team Manitoba Female Under - 18 team has equaled their male counterparts by advancing to the Gold Medal game at the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse with a 1-0 victory over Saskatchewan in overtime. A complete copy of the game summary can be found here.

The see-saw battle saw the teams trade scoring opportunities throughout the first three periods with Winnipeg's Delayne Brian going save for save with Saskatchewan's Kayley Herman. In total, Brian turned aside all 35 shots she faced while Herman made 28 saves through the first 60 minutes.

However, it took only one shot and 43 seconds of extra play for the game to be decided as East St. Paul's Breann Frykas stripped the Saskatchewan defenceman of the puck before sliding the puck through Herman's legs.

As their male counterparts did just over a week ago, Team Manitoba will face off against Team Ontario in the Gold Medal game. That action can be seen live Saturday on CBC beginning at 11:00 AM CST.The victory not only guarantees the Team Manitoba Female Under - 18 their highest finish ever at the Games but also their first medal ever.

Complete coverage of the Female hockey portion of the Canada Winter Games can be found here or by visiting the official Canada Winter Games site at http://www.2007canadagames.ca/.

Off to the Quarterfinals

The Team Manitoba Female Under - 18 team is off to the quarterfinals at the Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse. The team opened their tournament with a 6-0 victory over Team Northwest Territories. The relatively close score was a testament to the play of NWT goalie Leah Sulyma, who made 91 saves, as Manitoba outshot NWT 97-4.

While the team had an off day to practice on Tuesday, they were back at it on Wednesday taking on Team Nova Scotia. A solid team effort, including outshooting their opposition 48-19 lead to Manitoba's second victory of the tournament.

The two wins gave Manitoba the third seeding in the quaterfinals, where they will once again face off against the Nova Scotian's, who finished 6th after the final standings were calculated. That game can be seen via tape delay on Thursday evening on TSN beginning at 11:00 PM CST.

Besides the on-ice action, the team has been busy cheering on our other athletes including making it out to some boxing and wheelchair basketball events.

It should also be noted that the weather has made a quick turnaround up here. While the temperatures when we arove were extremely below normal (-25 to -35 range) the weather picked up yesterday and we are now expecting teams in the -5 range here on out.

Yukon Idol

Following the game against the Northwest Territories, Monday night was Yukon Idol night amongst the Team Manitoba female under-18 players.

There were many stirring performances on the evening including renditions of Respect, Man I Feel Like a Woman, In da Club, All the Small Things, Billie Jean, This One's for the Girls, Ain't No Mountain High Enough, Genie in A Bottle, I Will Survive, and more.

Ultimately, the evening's best singer, according to the judges including Peter "Simon" Woods was Andi Wilgosh, but there was some controversy due to her semi-pro status and an impasse was declared with no clear winner.

Game Day

After our final day of pre-competition practice, the Team Manitoba Female Under-18 team is preparing for their first game of the Canada Winter Games later this afternoon.

Sunday's practice was, despite the accompanying picture of Jenelle Kohanchuk, Katie Wilson and Addie Miles, an intense affair as the entire squad applied themselves and put forth a solid, fast paced effort heading into the game against the Northwest Territories. Today's game can be viewed via tape delay on the Aboriginal People's Television Network (APTN) at 8:00 CST. APTN is available on most Manitoba cable networks in the channel 73-75 range. The game can also be seen via web streaming at www.aptn.ca.

Following the practice it was the player's first down time of the week. Many headed down to the Canada Games Centre (a beautiful venue which cost $47 million to build two years ago but would be estimated at over $100 million today). The players took in some squash games as well as watching our Team Manitoba Table Tennis and Gymnastics practices. The evening was a quiet affair with the team resting up for the big game today.

Blog Update and Karaoke

Just wanted to update everyone on the blog's status. The past few days have been extremely busy preparing to depart and then upon our arrival. This point forward will hopefully have updates regularly (1-2 times per day). I've also taken down the player profiles as the site will probably face some higher traffic (including other teams) and we don't want to give away any player strengths and take the work out of it for their coaching staffs. Also, feel free to leave comments.

While in the previous post I mentioned that they day was rather uneventful, it did feature an interesting ending. Half of the team ended up at the karaoke room in the village. There were some memorable performances (like Andi Wilgosh's Goodbye Earl cover) and less than memorable performances (Sweet Home Manitoba). Pictured above are Chelsea Karpenko, Saleah Morrison and Bailey Bram making their best attempt at singing.

Our First Day in Whitehorse

While our first day in Whitehorse has come and gone. It was a very busy yet uneventful day. We awoke to thankfully find that all of our luggage had arrived.

After a quick breakfast, it was off to Takhini Arena for our first practice. It's a quite nice rink, despite being an older facility, with a capacity around 1500. It was also the rink in which the boys had played in the Gold Medal final the night before.

Following practice, we headed back to the village for lunch and a quick nap. After that it was off to Stan McGowan Arena for our second practice of the day. The stories I had been told about Stan McGowan (nicknamed the dungeon) did not live up their potential as it was not that bad at all, despite the fact that they will be tearing it down after the Games.

Following practice, it was back to the Village for supper and our first rest and relaxation.

Departure Day

Well, it has been a busy time and we have finally arrived in Whitehorse. After practicing at the Vimy Arena in Winnipeg on Thursday evening, we practiced at the Max Bell Centre twice on Friday before setting off to the airport.

There was a minor scare Friday when the road closures threatened to throw off our travel plans. Our flight was a charter with all Team Manitoba athletes and there was potential delays for those coming in from outside Winnipeg. Thankfully everything worked out and we got away about a 1/2 an hour after scheduled. The picture is players Chelsea Illchuk, Kylie Klassen and Rebecca Hewett awaiting departure.

The flight itself was exciting as the WestJet charter had TV's on them. What this meant was that 3/4's of our plane were watching the Men's hockey final with our Manitoba boys taking on Ontario. It was quite exciting with the whole flight cheering when we would score.

There was a small concern when only about 10 luggage bags and 5 hockey bags arrived that first night and we went to sleep wondering if we would be able to practice the next morning. Thankfully, upon a short sleep, everything had arrived the next morning.

Update on the Boys

Congratulations to the Team Manitoba Male Under-17 team, who have reached the finals at the Canada Winter Games! The boys will face off against Team Ontario. Their semi-final victory over Alberta on Wednesday guaranteed them their highest finish ever as well as securing them their first medal since a Bronze in 1991 (a team which included current Team Manitoba Female Under-18 Head Coach Peter Woods as an Assistant Coach).

The championship game can be seen live on TSN Friday evening beginning at 9:30 PM CST.

Complete coverage of the Male hockey portion of the Canada Winter Games can be found here or by visiting the official Canada Winter Games site at www.2007canadagames.ca.

How We Got Here

For many of the players on the team, the process to be a part of Team Manitoba started over a year ago with each player attending one of 5 regional try out camps throughout the province in early February. From there the top 136 players were selected to attend the Program of Excellence Spring Evaluation tournament in April at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg. The players were split onto eight teams and competed in a tournament format all vying for one of 40 spots in the Summer Camp.

The Coaching Staff and Evaluators selected a list of 4 goalies, 12 defensemen and 24 forwards from the tournament to attend the Summer Evaluation Camp in Brandon in late June. It was a very competitive and grueling process for all of the athletes involved as they fought to be a part of the evaluation roster. Some tough decisions were made as the staff whittled the list down to 26 players.

The 26 player Evaluation Roster then took part in two tournaments in late September and early October. The first tournament was the University of Manitoba Bison Pre-Season Invitational. The team opened with a loss to the Shattuck St. Mary's Sabres before following that up with victories over Team Saskatchewan and the University of Manitoba to earn a rematch in the Championship final against Shattuck. The tone in the rematch was quite different with Team Manitoba ultimately avenging their earlier loss with a 4-3 overtime victory.

The following weekend the team headed down to Grand Forks, North Dakota for the University of North Dakota Sioux-per Series. This was the final opportunity for players to make an impression on the coaching staff and some nervous performances early on led to Team Manitoba dropping their first two games before steadying the ship and finishing off with three straight victories.

Following the conclusion of the tournament the coaching staff selected the final 20 player roster. The team has gotten together over the past few months to practice as well as played a pair of exhibition games. The team posted a dominant victory over the Notre Dame Hounds as well as playing an excellent game against the Winnipeg Bantam AAA Sharks, losing by a 3-0 margin.

The final preparations for the team take place next Thursday and Friday, March 1st and 2nd as they practice in Winnipeg before flying out to Whitehorse.

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. - Wayne Gretzky

Welcome!

Welcome to the Team Manitoba Female Under-18 hockey team blog! This site will profile Team Manitoba's journey at the Canada Winter Games. The Games run from February 23 - March 10, 2007 in Whitehorse, Yukon. The Female hockey portion takes place in Week Two. Team Manitoba will depart on Friday, March 2nd and will see their first action on Monday, March 5th as they take on the Northwest Territories to open the tournament. Keep checking back to the site for frequent updates from players and staff leading up to and throughout the games.