Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
Head coach Kary Kirkup recalls the first time Kristen Campbell practised with the Westman Wildcats two years ago as a first-year bantam, wowing the other players on the Hartney-based midget team.
She hasn’t stopped since.
Campbell went on to make the Wildcats last season, when she was still bantam-aged, and the 15-year-old from Chater has now developed into one of the top goalies in the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League. Kirkup finished the MFMHL regular season with a league-leading 15 wins to go along with five losses. She led the circuit with a 0.62 goals-against average and a .974 save percentage.
“It’s all coming together for her,” said Kirkup, whose team opens the playoffs by hosting the Winnipeg Ice today at 4 p.m., in Hartney. “She’s playing like a last-year midget. She just keeps getting better all the time.
“Her confidence level this year, especially from training camp on, has been unreal compared to last year when she was a rookie. This year she’s just kind of blossomed and come into her own and she’s lights-out in there.”
Campbell’s progress is all the more impressive considering she missed a good chunk of her rookie season due to a concussion suffered in practice. Injured in November, she returned late in the season and, after training hard over the summer, she came to camp in the fall feeling like her old self again.
“I worked really hard all summer and tried to regain my strength in my neck from my injury,” said Campbell, who shared the MFMHL lead with seven shutouts in 20 games this season. “It was just really great coming back this season and picking up where I left off last season.”
Campbell was so impressive early in the season that Kirkup said NCAA Division I scouts at a September tournament in St. Cloud, Minn., were shocked to learn that a player with her size (5-foot-10, 155 pounds) and poise was only 14 at the time. Already several NCAA schools have expressed interest in Campbell and, after seeing teammates like Karissa Kirkup, Ashleigh Brykaliuk, Jessica Vallotton and Amanda Coey commit to American universities this season, it’s a road she’d like to pursue as well.
“Everyone on our team is so close,” she said. “Everyone’s been talking about the buzz between Karissa Kirkup and Jess and Ashleigh and all those girls signing full rides, so it’s really getting everyone motivated that maybe we can all do that someday.”
But university is two years away and Campbell is focused on the playoffs now. After finishing behind only the defending national champion Pembina Valley Hawks in the regular season, Campbell said the team believes they have a shot to go a long way this spring.
“We’ve beat Pembina twice this year, actually, and lost twice so I feel like if everyone’s playing at their top level we can maybe even make it to Burnaby (B.C.), the Esso Cup (national championship) in April,” Campbell said. “That would just be the ultimate for every player on the team.”
ONE-TIMERS: After hosting the Ice today, the Wildcats will visit Winnipeg tomorrow in Game 2 of their best-of-five quarter-final … The Yellowhead Chiefs visit the Winnipeg Avros this morning before their series shifts to Shoal Lake for Game 2 tomorrow at 5 p.m.
» rhenders@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition February 23, 2013
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Head coach Kary Kirkup recalls the first time Kristen Campbell practised with the Westman Wildcats two years ago as a first-year bantam, wowing the other players on the Hartney-based midget team.
She hasn’t stopped since.
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Head coach Kary Kirkup recalls the first time Kristen Campbell practised with the Westman Wildcats two years ago as a first-year bantam, wowing the other players on the Hartney-based midget team.
She hasn’t stopped since.
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