Hockey dreams separate twins

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This article was published 12/08/2025 (286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hockey brought twins Haley and Madison Blaine together on the ice, and now it’s splitting them apart.

The pair, who were born on Jan. 16, 2007, spent last season with the under-18 Brandon Wheat Kings, but this year Haley is heading to Nebraska’s Midland University, while Madison attends Alberta’s Olds College to follow their hockey dreams.

“It’s definitely going to be a lot, especially not being separated for the 12 or 13 years we played together,” Haley said. “We just had a sense on the ice that we had each other’s backs, and we knew where each other were. We took one car to the rink every single day together, we did everything together. It’s definitely going to be a big change, especially now with her staying in Canada and me going down to the States.

“It will be quite a long distance, but that’s what FaceTime is for. We’ll be able to follow each other along and see each other is progressing and where we are. It’s definitely going to be a change, but I’m excited to see what she does.”

For the record, they’ll be separated by more than 2,200 km, which is the rough equivalent of Brandon’s distance from Vancouver or Toronto.

The five-foot-nine Vincent Massey graduates already have long careers in the game at 18.

Madison was the first to start hockey, taking up the game at age five. Haley joined her a season later.

“I always watched hockey growing up,” Haley said. “It was a big thing in our family and with our extended family too. I was too scared to start when Madison did, so I watched her play for a year and then realized it seemed fun and was one of the sports I wanted to get into.”

The two played together on the same team their whole lives, with Haley always on the blue-line and Madison starting off as a forward, then trying goal and switching back.

“My dad spent a ton of money on me to get goal equipment but quite a few games I would get lazy and lie on the ice and let all the goals in because the equipment was too heavy on me,” Madison said. “After a couple of years and a lot of money spent on me, I decided this was maybe not the position for me. Then I switched back to forward because I wanted to be more involved in the game.”

One thing they never did was share a position, and it was for a simple reason.

“We would have bumped heads doing that,” Haley said. “Every single team we played on, we were always together, we never got split up until going into university now.”

They also played soccer and softball, although hockey took over when they reached high school. While they both share some common attributes with their size and willingness to get involved, they have evolved into different players over the years.

“She’s definitely a power forward,” Haley said of Madison. “She’s not afraid to go into the corners and use her body, for sure. That’s one of her main points. She worked hard. She gets where she needs to be. She might not be the biggest point getter, but you need a player who works as hard as they can and does what she can for the team. You can tell she’s out there to carry her teammates.”

If you’re looking for a comparable player for Madison, think about Wheat Kings forward Carter Klippenstein, a rangy, hard-working forechecker who is an absolute misery to play against.

Last season in 37 games, Madison had a goal, four assists, and 40 penalty minutes. Meanwhile, back on the blue-line, the play-maker and stout defender Haley posted five goals, eight assists, and 24 penalty minutes. Six of her points came from her time on the power play.

“Haley is quick to make plays on the ice,” Madison said. “She tends to keep her head up well, and she uses not only her defencemen but the forwards too to make plays. She does her job well, she doesn’t leave her job to be finished by anyone else. When she’s starting something, she finishes it on the ice. She’s really confident on the blue-line and will pinch up when she needs to and knows when to get back if she needs it.”

The twins were trailblazers in Brandon, playing on the expansion U15 AAA Wheat Kings squad before joining the Westman Wildcats for two seasons to play U18 AAA. When the Wheat Kings introduced a U18 AAA program last fall, they were able to return to Brandon.

“Playing at home turned out amazing,” Madison said. “A lot of the friends I started growing up with, we got split in our first year of playing Wildcats when most of them went to Central. It was really good having a senior year at home playing in front of my family and friends. A big aspect of staying with the Brandon Wheat Kings was it’s easier for our grandparents to come watch.”

The team tried to build a culture they thought would be passed on to future teams, but instead, the team folded after one season due to numbers following the graduation of six of the team’s 18 players and the decision by four others to head to prep schools next winter. After the 2025-26 season, however, the Manitoba Female Hockey League U18 AAA is making a substantial change.

The long-discussed elite league finally launches in the 2026-27 season, with the number of teams reduced from eight to six, with two based in Winnipeg and four hub teams in rural Manitoba, with the restrictions on players that bound them to their local association in favour of a new model that makes rural Manitoba one open territory and Winnipeg another, with players free to try out with whatever team they want inside their territory.

“It’s definitely hard,” Haley said of the loss of the Wheat Kings. “It was a great winter playing with the girls and organization and the facility we were able to get this year. They’re trying to do what’s best and trying to figure out how many teams will be in the league. We were lucky enough to come back and to experience this year, but now we’re moving on.”

She added they will be staying in touch with many of their teammates.

NEXT STEP

The twins began to hear from college teams when they were in Grade 11, with Madison noting it was important to know which coaches would be scouting so they could talk to schools they were interested in.

“It seems quicker and quicker that teams are being made, earlier into the season,” Madison said. “It’s good to be efficient with it. If there are certain teams you want to talk to and you think it’s too early, it’s best to get your name out there before they start making their final decisions.”

After their second season with the Wildcats and before the start of their senior year with the Wheat Kings, the process began to heat up.

Haley went and toured Midland University in Fremont. The community of 27,000 is located 1,168 kilometres southeast of Brandon near the state capital of Lincoln. “I loved the facility, loved the coaching staff and the girls, it just seemed like a perfect fit for me,” Haley said. “After I toured down there, I knew where I stood and where I wanted to take my future with hockey.”

Head coach Jason White and the Warriors officially announced her commitment on Nov. 21, 2024.

They compete in Women’s Midwest College Hockey, which is the Division 1 club level of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. (Brandon’s Assiniboine College Cougars compete in Division 2.)

Haley has the advantage of having her Wheat Kings teammate Jordan Bell going with her.

“It’s amazing,” Haley said. “She’s been my best friend growing up forever, and we both started hockey when we turned six. When you’re younger you kind of play on different teams, but we always found our way back to each other. We have a hockey sense together when we’re on the ice. We don’t need to see each other, we just know where each other are.

“I’m really lucky to go down there with her and have someone to have some experience being away from home with but also having that sense of home.”

Madison reached out to a number of schools that had the courses she wanted, and committed to Arizona in December. Ultimately, she’ll be staying a lot closer to home.

“Unfortunately it didn’t work out because of the cost of tuition and everything,” Madison said. “Then I reached out to SAIT and NAIT and Olds, Alta., and went and toured there with my parents and immediately felt like it was the perfect distance from home. The facility is great, and the coach really seemed like he actually cared to have me there.

“He did a great job of showing me around and making me feel like he wanted me there, which is a big part of being recruited.”

She committed in April and will also have a close friend there. Her Wheat Kings teammate Bailey Anderson had committed to Dakota College at Bottineau but will accompany Madison to Olds instead.

“It’s definitely a really good feeling to have someone from back home,” Madison said. “Like Haley said, we’re far away from home, so having someone I’ve grown up with feels like having some of home with me. Me and Bailey have become best friends, and I appreciate her so much. She pushes me to become a better hockey player, especially sometimes when I lack confidence on the ice.

“Her, Haley, and Jordan are definitely the first three who will get me back into the right mindset. It honestly just worked out perfectly, and we honestly didn’t plan it. It was just fate, I guess.”

SPLITTING UP

Like many teenagers moving away from home for the first time, they’re experiencing a mix of excitement and trepidation. Both say it will be an opportunity to break out of their routines and to become their own person.

“I like being at home with my friends and family, but as much as it’s nerve-wracking, I’m excited to start new, start fresh, and experience university life and travel a lot,” Haley said. “I’m grateful that with this opportunity you get to travel all over the United States, which is kind of an amazing experience, and you get to do it while you play a sport you love. Even though I’ll be away from family, there will be opportunities when they’ll be able to come see me, and there will be times when I get to come home and visit them.

“It’s definitely going to be a change but also an opportunity for me to grow and become an individual who gets to do her own thing, and I’ll still be able to see my family every once in a while, so I think I’ll be OK.”

Madison agreed.

“I’m very much a person who likes routine and likes to do the same thing over and over again,” Madison said. “When I start to get anxious about moving away, I just think that if nothing changes, then nothing changes, and I’ll be living in the same cycle consistently. For me to make change, I have to change my ways, and I feel it’s going to be difficult to adjust, but I’m really looking forward to getting you out of this comfort zone.

“… I have to control the change and my career path and my life, and it’s all about challenges. We’ll see how it goes.”

Madison is taking business management at Olds, while Haley is majoring in criminal justice with a minor in psychology.

Haley leaves on Aug. 19, with her first day of practice on Aug. 25. Madison heads out to Olds on Aug. 23. Madison said she’s grateful they got to play together for 13 years, but now it’s time to part ways. She added it’s also an important moment off the ice.

“It came down to picking our universities, and we did tour some together, but I just thought this is the time for us to be able to grow apart,” Madison said. “I felt if we stayed together throughout university, we’d never be able to have our own separate lives.

“Me and Haley just lean on each other so much for support and everything, and I think this is a really good opportunity for us to get out of our comfort zones, and FaceTime, call, and text. We’ll always be there for each other, it’s just good that we both get to have our own little university life for a bit.”

While they admit it’s nice to have the technology to stay close, Haley added they could part ways for a while and lose none of the bond that unites them so tightly.

“We know even that if we didn’t talk for days or even months, we would go back to each other and things would still be the same,” Haley said. “We might not be able to see each other a lot until about Christmas, but I’ll still follow her along on her hockey journey, and I’ll watch games online if I’m able. There are other ways I’ll be able to see her even without social media and things like that.

“Our bond is strong enough that we’ll always go back to each other, no matter what, and it will be the exact same.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com