Cougars play host to chilly skills session

While it was a chilly night on the outdoor rinks in Brandon on Friday evening, the Assiniboine College Cougars still managed to have fun with a small group of young players.

The American Collegiate Hockey Association’s women’s Division 2 team hosted its first-ever outdoor skills session and game at East End Community Centre, and while the -23 C conditions surely kept some youngsters away, the ones who attended seemed to have fun.

“It was pretty nice for female hockey,” goaltender Rachel Halldorson said. “Even if they’re just starting hockey, it’s having this opportunity to come out and skate with everyone. We’re more than happy to be here helping them out.”

While the women’s game continues to get stronger in Canada and around the world, Cougars head coach Charles Tweed said it was a chance to get youngsters thinking about where the sport could potentially take them.

“We were just thinking about opportunities in many ways to get more young girls out skating and them to see college athletes right in their hometown that they can look up to and start to identify those pathways that they can take,” Tweed said. “Athletes have gone to the U.S., and gone to CIS and U Sports now, and we’re a pathway as well.

“It’s exciting to see both the growth of the women’s game, and when you have a bunch of kids with grins on their faces out here with our athletes, it’s pretty awesome.”

When the kids came into the shack to warm up, hot chocolate, hot dogs, and cookies were waiting for them. Halldorson said if she was the age of some of the youngsters who attended, it would have been a big event for her.

“I would be so happy,” Halldorson said. “It would be really, really fun, honestly, just getting to look up to these people, the people you want to be one day. I think it would be really awesome.”

Tweed, meanwhile, was quick to point out the event was made possible by a lot more people than just the team and the school. He pointed to the ice, which was in terrific shape.

“It’s a little cold, but we still had athletes show up to look up to our girls,” Tweed said. “It’s obviously the first time we’ve done this, so it’s a trial balloon. I know the guys here at the East End Community Centre have put in a hundred hours this week getting the ice ready for us so it’s playable, and the Brandon firefighters came out and flooded for us.

“It’s a community effort. It’s the first time, so we’ll keep growing it.”

At one point, with most of the players inside warming up, Halldorson was out on the ice with just a toque on her head, letting seven-year-old Gwen Cudal take shots on her. Naturally, she checked first that the youngster couldn’t raise the puck yet. Halldorson laughed when she was reminded that the last National Hockey League goalies to play without a mask was in the mid-1970s, just 50 years ago.

“That would never be me,” Halldorson said with a chuckle. “I would be too scared to get hit in the face with the puck, and I would be too cold.”

The Cougars, who are 17-2 and currently on a 13-game winning streak, next see action on Feb. 7 when they visit the Altoona Sports Center to meet the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire in the morning and North Dakota State University in the evening, with a game against University of Wisconsin Madison the next day.

They have six games left overall in the season and are ranked first in the West Region.

The women’s national tournament will take place from March 15 to 19 at the Centene Community Ice Center in Maryland Heights, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis.

Tweed suggested Friday’s event, in which his players laughed a lot on the ice and then came back into the shack and continued the merriment, was good for the club as they prepare for the next seven weeks.

“That’s everything for us,” Tweed said. “It’s pretty easy to have athletes, it’s a different thing to have one team. We’ve got one idea together. Our group, as you could tell tonight, really likes each other. Everywhere you go in life, it’s easier to have fun and play hard when you’re around people you like. This group is so good with that.

“One of our first rules was we don’t talk about our teammates unless they’re in the room, and the girls have literally bought into that philosophy that we’re going to have each other’s back, everything is going to get shut down, and we’re going to be a team with a common goal.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com