Perkin carving way for Wildcats U18 crew

Ivy Perkin is proof the best leader is not always the loudest one.

Perkin, a 17-year-old captain of the Westman Wildcats U18 AAA girls squad, grew up in Elgin idolizing the team she’s now gotten to suit up and hit the ice with for three straight seasons. And after serving as an alternate captain last season, she’s now taken the reigns of the leadership department in her senior year for one of the youngest cores in the Manitoba Female Hockey League.

But despite her team’s lack of experience, Perkin’s propelled them to success on the ice all while building camaraderie off the sheet.

“I think we’ve done very good,” said Perkin on Tuesday. “We have such a young group and all of our players are pretty young, so they’ve had to step immediately into those big roles, which is hard for them, but they’ve all adjusted and I’m definitely just proud of our team.”

Westman finished near the bottom of the standings last year, but with the addition of head coach Karissa Kirkup — who played with the Wildcats from 2009 to 2013 and coached the Brandon Wheat Kings U18 AAA girls team last season — and an injection of youth into the lineup, which has more than half the team playing in their Grade 10 season, it has jumped to third place in the league this season with a 14-7-5 record. Westman trails just the Winnipeg Ice (23-1-1) and Eastman Selects (21-1-2).

Perkin, who’s one of just three graduating players — the other two being forward Charlie Shearer and defender Kadence Mann, who are also the club’s alternate captains — wasn’t even sure she would be a part of the leadership group heading into the season because of her more shy personality, but it turns out actions speak louder than words.

“It was kind of surprising because I’m not the most outgoing person. I’m kind of quieter, but I guess the team liked it,” she said. “I work really hard and I’ve just set a great example, I guess, which is why they voted for me. They had to write a little comment on why they picked me too, so being picked was obviously really special.

“I’ve watched the Wildcats play ever since I was a little girl and just to represent the organization is just insanely cool. I always thought, ‘Those girls are way too good, there’s no way I’ll ever be like them,’ so it’s cool to think about.”

What would be even more mind-boggling for Perkin to think about is most of the players she was watching at the time wouldn’t have even come close to the numbers she’s been chalking up this year, as the five-foot-four centre has averaged just shy of a goal per game this season with 23 goals and 53 points in only 26 games. Last year, she had 28 goals and 58 points in 32 games, so putting pucks in the back of the net is far from foreign to her. So while she’s the heartbeat of the Wildcats locker room, she’s proved to be just as important on the ice, as her offensive production blows any of her teammates’ completely out of the water.

Her winger Ivy Fry holds the second-highest point totals on the team with 11 goals and 20 points, which is still 33 points fewer than Perkin. Still, as any true captain would, she believes her scorching hot numbers can be credited to the team around her, specifically her linemates Fry and Rachel Lyver.

“I would say that my line over the last couple months, we’ve got some great chemistry going,” Perkin said. “We’ve kind of figured out where each other are on the ice and they’ve (Fry and Lyver) have definitely really helped me. They just know where I’m going to be on the ice, so they can set me up for goals.”

Perkin admitted she owes her goal-scoring ability to her grandpa, who was a big part of her decision to start playing hockey at the age of three thanks to a convincing incentive.

“He was kind of pushing me to play and actually at the start of my career, he said every goal I get, he would give me $5,” Perkin said with a chuckle. “That made me really want to play and well, he eventually had to give up on that. He might be broke now.”

With the motivation at an all time high, all Perkin needed to do was develop the skill, which she said came from her family farm in Elgin, where she still has a net and targets set up for all the shooting practice she could possibly need. She said it’s the reason why she has the release she has today, which has just the right combination of quick and accurate to fool any goaltender in the league.

That was displayed over the weekend in Westman’s 4-3 victory over the Pembina Valley Hawks (8-15-1), when Perkin notched two goals in addition to an assist on Lyver’s fourth tally of the year, which was also the game winner. The Wildcats will now close out their regular season schedule with two games this weekend, as they host the Interlake Lightning (2-21-2) on Friday and Hawks on Saturday, which will also feature a presentation for the seniors on the team.

Perkin expects it to be a night full of bitter-sweet moments.

“Obviously, it should be pretty fun but it’s also kind of sad for me because it’s my regular season games, so it’s getting close to the end. So as a team, we just got to really come together for the end and hopefully make a run for it in the playoffs.”

Following what she hopes to be a successful ride in the post-season, Perkin will then gear up for new adventures next season, when she heads to the University of Regina for the 2026-27 Canada West campaign. While the process of deciding where to commit wasn’t easy, she decided what mattered most was sticking close to her roots.

“For me, I really wanted to stay close to home,” said Perkin. “I didn’t really want to move very far and I wanted to stay in Canada, so it’s just a nice little school and I think we’re going to have a good group and I’m just hoping that we can kind of create almost a dynasty.”

Perkin will find some familiar faces in Regina, as Westman’s captain from last year, Callie Hilhorst, also plays there. She currently has five assists in 21 contests. In addition to the players, Perkin also noted she is excited to play for head coach Brandy West-McMaster, who was honoured as the Canada West coach of the year in the 2024-25 season after she led the Cougars to the playoffs with an 11-12-5 record as interim head coach.

And luckily for Perkin, she’s already got plenty of opportunity to pick the brain of a brilliant coach in Kirkup, who played in the NCAA for two seasons before heading over to U Sports with the University of Manitoba from 2015 to 2019. She hasn’t wasted the opportunity to learn from her.

“I’ve never had her as a coach before this year, so it was nice to see all the different perspectives she’s had,” she said. “One of the biggest things is she’s always said it’s very hard to balance the school and the hockey, so just to make sure that you’re always on top of everything and don’t get too stressed out, but to also just have some fun.

“She’s always said coaches often look for just how hard you’re working, even in practises and workouts, pretty much everything each night they often sit six to eight players, so it’s always a battle. She’s just taught us lots about how to prepare for that.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com