CIS CORNER: WOMEN'S HOCKEY GOES DEEP

The buzzword at the 2007 SMART CIS women's hockey championship earlier this afternoon over at the U of O Sports Complex was "depth."

The player in the tournament with the most name recognition, Olympic gold medal-winning goalie Charline Labonte of No. 1 seed McGill, wasn't on hand. Here, she's just a rookie, even with her Olympic hardware. Instead, McGill captain Shauna Denis of nearby Stittsville was doing the media thing, as if to send the message there's more to the CIS game than who can a recruit a ringer from Team Canada.

"We've always had stars in this tournament, but now there's depth on every team," McGill coach Peter Smith said. "Everyone here has four lines, six D and two goalies who can play ... It's a great indicator of how far CIS hockey has come."

Shelley Coolidge of the host Ottawa Gee-Gees, who are seeded fifth out of six teams, was more succinct, saying, "There are kids who aren't playing who could have stepped on the ice a few years ago."

Her counterpart for tomorrow night, Laurier Golden Hawks coach Rick Osborne, said that a few years ago, you could earn a CIS berth with "two lines and three or four D (defencemen) who could bring it for 60 minutes." The event is only a decade old, but clearly it's come a long way.

"The conditioning and the speed has improved so much over the past few years, I think this will be the most exciting tournament for the fans yet," said Osborne, whose Golden Hawks have split the past two CIS finals with the Alberta Pandas, who face the Laurier-Ottawa loser Saturday. "We're looking forward to three extremely competitive games. I don't think there's a soft touch in this tournament."

Time was, the event was the haves vs. the best of the have nots. This time, the bottom two seeds, the Gee-Gees and Manitoba Bisons, both have recent podium finishes to their credit (silver in 2004 and bronze in 2005 after being seeded last, respectively). Coolidge's club showed how much the gap has closed by beating both Laurier and McGill this year, the former at a tournament in Montreal in early January.

"Ottawa's a very good team," Osborne said. "When we played just after Christmas, we got three quick goals and they came back kept battling, battling, battling to pull it out, 4-3. They're a very physical team, like the ones we see in our conference. I expect a very tough game tomorrow night."

The Gee-Gees are also rich in goaltending, where Coolidge says she has three candidates to play this weekend.

"Julie Lalonde has come up some incredible games and incredible saves for us this year," she said. "Megan Takeda, of course, took us to the finals at nationals when she was a rookie (in 2004), and we have our local girl, Melissa DiPetta, who won the gold with Team Ontario at the under-18 nationals a couple years ago. Any one of those three could make the difference. And goaltending could be the difference in the tournament."

Manitoba's 19-year-old goalie, Stacey Corfield, could also steal a win or two in the other pool which includes mighty McGill and the Moncton Aigles Bleues.

"She (Corfield) was a first-team all-star in Canada West," Bisons coach Jon Rempel said. "She's a candidate for the under-22 team and my understanding is she's getting pretty close. She's a gamer."

The mere fact Moncton is the fourth seed is also a sign of parity. Some of the first teams which came out of the Atlantic conference (all-time record at the nationals: 2-26-2) were out of their depth. Bottom line, there will be some good hockey down at the rink on King Edward Ave., this weekend, and hopefully the media crush from earlier today is an indicator of the public interest. Here's some quick thumbnails on the teams:

POOL B (go local first!)

(2) LAURIER GOLDEN HAWKS: Osborne noted they're not as deep as past years -- "we don't have the full complement" -- but holdovers from the 2005 national championships such as captain Laurissa Kenworthy and assistant Fiona Alston, a Nepean High alumna, act as veteran influences. The OUA held its championship later than the other conferences and also used the neutral-site, single-elimination format, so that might have helped Laurier's preparation.

(3) ALBERTA PANDAS: The U of A had a 130-27 goal differential in the regular season while player of the year Stacey McAlphine and under-22 national team player Tarin Podloski (pictured) finished 1-2 in Canada in scoring. They're formidable -- Laval in football formidable. Alberta's won the whole schebangabang five of the past seven years. Enough said.

(5) OTTAWA GEE-GEES: The trio of Kim Kerr, Kim Blain and Mandi Duhamel have carried Ottawa offensively. Some secondary scoring and great goaltending will be needed.

POOL A

(1) McGILL MARTLETS: It's a tough enough team to score on even before you get to Labonte.

(4) MONCTON AIGLES BLEUES: Kind of a Team X -- first-timers at the nationals who were helped out by St. Thomas upsetting St. Francis Xavier in the conference playoffs. Leading scorer Marieve Provost played on the under-22 team a couple years ago; she Valerie Boisclair each average around two points per game.

(6) MANITOBA BISONS: It's been a big year for Team 'Toba in hockey -- Jonathan Toews was the shootout star of the world juniors, the province took both silvers in hockey recently at the Canada Winter Games and the Bisons are at the women's nats for the second time in Rempel's three years as coach. "When I look at where our program's come from in the past three years, it's just a more professional thing that we're doing," Rempel said. "The athletes are better.

The Bisons stack up as a longshot led by Corfield and goal and captain Leanne Kisil. "We try to grind to teams down and keep things close. We don't score a ton of goals but we don't give up a lot," Rempel said.

(Photo courtesy Uwe Welz Photography and the University of Alberta; much thanks to Matt Gutsch.)

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.