In September, Jasper’s youth female hockey players received an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser, six-time Olympian, four-time gold medalist, Hockey Hall of Famer, emergency room physician, and the unquestioned GOAT of women’s hockey, sent a video message inviting a Jasper team to come to her Calgary-based Wickfest girls’ hockey tournament. 

“Hopefully this can be a bright spot in a what’s been a really hard time for you guys,” she said.

As a result, last weekend, an ad-hoc Jasper Grizzlies team—assembled just for this tournament—saddled up and rode out to Cowtown. The group was made up of girls playing on the U13 and U15 co-ed Jasper Bears, kids who aren’t living in Jasper currently, and some who aren’t even playing hockey this year.

The weekend started with the opening party at Ranchman’s and some line dancing lessons to Achy Breaky Heart and Boot Scootin’ Boogie. That was followed up by watching Calgary’s 17-year-old American Idol contestant Kaiya Gamble and her band. They played original songs and led the crowd full of Stetson-wearing, plaid-clad tween and teen hockey players in scream-singalongs of pop hits (Taylor Swift and Starships brought the house down). 

Friday afternoon brought the first game of the tournament, against the Fort Nelson Grizzlies. Two Grizzlies in one tournament?  That’s like having two teams with the same name in, say, the Canadian Football League.

The Mama and Papa Grizzlies were nervous. Our team’s kids range from 10 to 13 years old, but they were playing against teams made up of solely 13 and 14 year olds. Jasper had only a couple of practices (in Hinton, of course) leading up to the tournament, and hadn’t played any games together.

The Grizzlies (the other ones) opened the scoring after some sustained pressure from the Grizzlies (the Jasper ones). Jasper was a bit slow on their skates to start the match as they got a feel for how to play with each other. After going down 2-0, Jasper evened it up on Ruby Olson’s first goal of the night and a tally by Juniper Habib on a sweet centering pass from Hana Callihoo. Alice Wannop (playing this season for the Edmonton Storm) added another before Ruby marked two more to complete the hat trick. Unfortunately, the full netting around the rink prevented any tossing of hats.

The game went down to the wire, with Jasper clinging to a one-goal lead. Fort Nelson’s captain had a shorthanded breakaway with just three seconds remaining; she fired it on net but goalie Anna Gifford deflected it with the butt-end of her stick, sending it up into the glass to preserve the victory.

Anna – who hadn’t played goalie in a couple of years– had stepped in to mind the net.  A registration issue prevented “Mad” Madi Overeem (a AA Whitecourt import who has played with the Grizzlies in the past) from taking the ice; Madi made an excellent assistant goalie coach and head cheerleader for the Grizzlies. Huge credit to her and her dad, Coach Ernie, for coordinating the jerseys and making the trek to join the team, despite the mishap. The bench was supplemented by coaches Meg Osborne and Madi Kerr, bringing their Jasper female hockey expertise to the girls in an hands-on way.

Mad Madi’s coaching helped Anna find her groove in net for the second game against the intimidating Wood Buffalo Huskies. (What kind of team has two animals in their name? Seriously.) They came out like a pack of rabid sled dogs, firing shot after shot at Anna, which she kicked away with her bear-like reflexes.

In this game, the Grizzlies seemed to be greatly outmatched.  It got to the point where parents were cheering a simple zone clear, but Anna standing tall in net and some strong defence from Morgan Staneland and Hailey Cardiff kept them in the game.  Winger Rowan Vien’s two-way play also helped, as did the return of Ramona Rushton (who recently relocated from Jasper but responded to a Grizz-signal in the sky to assist her former team).

Finally, Ruby chipped it out of the zone and blew past the Huskies to score a highlight-reel shorty; the Grizzlies survived the first period clinging to a 1-0 lead despite having been outshot by about 30 shots to four.

The Huskies took one of many undisciplined penalties early in the second but managed to even the game with their own shorthanded goal. The Grizzlies were getting more aggressive, playing like pesky little mosquitos buzzing around the oversized Huskies. Alice’s silky-smooth, serpentine skating was frustrating the opposition; they took out this frustration by boarding her. The ensuing power play led to some sustained O-zone time but no goals. Shortly after, the Huskies got in on a 2-on-0 but hit the post; one Jasper parent got so excited that a cowbell accidentally flew through the air. The Huskies took another nasty penalty up by one with just 30 seconds left; the Grizzlies came close to tying it but ended up dropping the match, 2-1.

With a heavy snowfall warning in effect, Saturday morning brought game three against the Wheatland (County) Wranglers.  “Wick” herself gave the girls a locker room pep talk (and obligatory autograph session) before the game. Some of the girls told me that her message of “even though things get hard you got to keep going” really resonated with them. “It was really cool that she watched some of our game” they said.

Wheatland took an early lead on a lucky bounce, but the tilt was evened up when after a chaotic net-front scramble, Zephy Korogonas popped in a rebound. The Wranglers started to pull away though, as the Grizzlies were playing far below their potential. The kids seemed tired after having stayed up probably too late….but tournaments are also for the parents, right? You can’t serendipitously book a hotel in the brewery district and not take advantage…

The Grizz ended up losing this one 7-1. Oh well, on to the next. 

Some other activities were on tap for the afternoon; while some families took advantage of the city to go shopping or visit relatives, some girls took a breaking session with B-Girl Sasha Fox and worked on their freezes. 

Winger/Defender Molleigh McGrath’s birthday was celebrated with fancy cookies and roller skating. It is kind of amazing how graceful these skaters can be on the ice but when you put them on old-school rollerskates, they become a bunch of gliding baby giraffes. Learning from mistakes, Saturday night ended with an Oilers watch party followed by Head Coach Toby Gifford imposing an evening curfew (for the kids as well as their parents). You only learn that lesson once (a weekend).

On Sunday morning, the snowstorm had passed and the sun was streaming in the windows of the hyper-modern Great Plains Recreation Facility, giving it an ODR feel. This morning’s opponents were the Edmonton Storm; our girls hit them like a tornado looking to avenge their previous loss. Determined Belinda Derksen notched her first tally of the weekend, her cousin Evy was a menace up and down the ice (and when prank-calling parents), and defender Madi Misskey was back to her feisty self. It seemed that the curfew had worked.

Alice did another “Wannop Wind-Up,” collecting the puck in her end, looping around her goalie, and going coast-to-coast, McDavid style. The Storm goalie managed to stop the shot but the puck sat there, spinning for an eternity, before Leah Gifford came barreling in, lifted the puck over the sprawling goalie into the net, and dramatically crashed into the boards in one of the highlight goals of the weekend.

The Grizzlies poured it on with goal after goal. Sofia Artiaga made a stellar defensive play to keep the Storm at bay when she made a critical zone clear after back-to-back goals. The team did manage to score a goal on the ensuing powerplay to avenge her; they were snapping the puck around like pros. Juniper delivered the dagger, scoring the ninth goal by winning a faceoff, going end-to-end, and scoring while being tripped. A 9-4 victory left the Grizzlies feeling good as they finished the tournament in third place.

A huge thanks to team manager Lynn Wannop, who poured her heart and soul into coordinating this tournament and into female hockey in Jasper in general. These girls couldn’t have done this without you!

Lucas Habib // info@thejasperlocal.com