Source: Canada West Communications / Photo credit David Moll
EDMONTON – For the second time in her three-year CIS
career, Hayley Wickenheiser is the Canada West women’s hockey
Player of the Year.
With 115 points in just 53 conference games as a member of the
Dinos since 2010, the Canadian national team captain has continued
to elevate the play in Canada West and across the country in CIS
women’s hockey. Her 43 points in 22 games this season led
Canada West as she posted 16 goals and 27 assists along with an
impressive +36 rating on the year.
Wickenheiser led the conference in goals, assists, points,
game-winning goals, and plus-minus on the season, sparking the
Dinos to their best record in history at 23-4-1 and a second
straight first-place finish.
Playing in virtually every situation for the Dinos and at any point
on the ice, the two-time CIS All-Canadian and 2011 national player
of the year continues to make those around her better while
providing leadership and an example off the ice. The MVP of last
season’s national championship game, which brought the CIS
title to Calgary for the first time ever, Wickenheiser has been
named the Canada West Top 8 Academic All-Canadian for two years
running as she studies toward her Kinesiology degree.
“I’m really pleased that Hayley received the award this
year,” said Calgary bench boss Danielle Goyette. “She
has made a major difference not just for our team, but for the
entire conference, and I really believe that since she entered the
league the quality of play has gotten better across the board.
She’s raising the level of hockey, and that’s one of
the things we’re trying to do is make this league as good and
competitive as it can be.”
Wickenheiser and the Dinos face the upstart UBC Thunderbirds this
weekend for the Canada West title. Both teams have already
qualified to represent Canada West at the CIS championship in
Toronto March 7-10.
After a sensational freshman campaign, Alberta Pandas winger
Jessica Kampjes has been voted Rookie of the Year.
The St. Albert, Alta., born forward led all first year players in
points this season by scoring a freshmen best 10 goals, as well as
seven assists for 17 points in her first 28 CIS regular season
games. Her 10 goals were the 16th highest output in Canada West and
the 30th most goals in the entire country. Kampjes also scored a
pair of game winning goals for the Pandas, which ties her for the
team lead and 11th in the conference.
She helped the Pandas, the most successful program in CIS
women’s hockey history, to a 16-9-3 regular season record and
a 16th consecutive conference playoff berth. Alberta defeated
Saskatchewan in two straight games in the quarterfinals, but then
lost in three games to the defending CIS champion Calgary Dinos. In
six playoff games, Kampjes scored two goals and four points.
“She is a strong, powerful player that can be dominant when
she is on the ice,” said 16-year Alberta head coach Howie
Draper. “The more comfortable she becomes playing at the CIS
level, the more I think we'll see her performing at the top of the
league.”
Tanya Morgan, the fifth-year captain of the Dinos, is the first
University of Calgary player to be named the Canada West nominee
for the Marion Hilliard Student-Athlete Award.
The honour is presented annually to recognize outstanding
performance in hockey, academics, and community service, and Morgan
is a worthy recipient. A CIS Academic All-Canadian studying toward
a degree in kinesiology with a major in mind sciences, Morgan is an
outstanding student and sets a solid example for her teammates in
the classroom. On the ice, she is the team’s captain and
finished eighth in the conference in scoring with 26 points on the
year – including a hat trick and a six-point effort in the
last regular season game of her career. She was also the hero in
triple overtime for the Dinos in last week’s conference
semi-final series, finally ending the marathon game after more than
33 minutes of OT to give the Dinos the upper hand in the
series.
Morgan is also heavily involved in the community. A longtime power
skating instructor, Morgan has recently gotten into coaching,
working with hockey academies in the off-season. She has
volunteered with a hockey tournament for terminally ill children in
her hometown of Grande Prairie, and she has been an on-ice
volunteer for Hockey Ministries International camps since 2011.
Morgan is also the luminary co-chair of the University of
Calgary’s Relay for Life, a fundraiser for the Canadian
Cancer Society.
Since 2010, she has worked with the ‘Stepping Out’
program at the University of Calgary. The program aims to improve
fitness, body awareness, quality of life, and social skills for
young adults with autism spectrum disorder, and Morgan works as a
program coordinator with other practicum students from the Faculty
of Kinesiology. Working in groups with 3-5 young adults with ASD,
her role includes tracking daily activity and workouts along with
supervision on outings to museums, skating, basketball, and other
activities.
“Over the past five years, Tanya has become a go-to player
for our coaching staff,” said Dinos head coach Danielle
Goyette. “As a leader, she is very responsible and the team
is always her first priority. She pays close attention to her
studies and sets an example for young players in the classroom, and
she understands the importance of giving back to the community and
the sport of hockey. She is a truly inspirational, well-rounded
leader and we are honoured to have her as our captain.”
In his first year at the helm, Coach of the Year Graham Thomas led
the UBC Thunderbirds to the greatest turnaround in CIS women's
hockey history. Thomas took over a team that finished with just one
win in 2011-12 Canada West regular season and transformed the
'Birds into one of the top teams in the conference.
UBC finished the regular season with a record of 17-7-4, good
enough for third place in the conference standings and the first
playoff home date in the program's history.
Thomas, a Calgary native, came to UBC from Syracuse University,
where he had been with the women’s hockey team as an
associate coach for four years, helping to build the program from
the ground up. Prior to that, he was the head coach at Southern
Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in 2007-08, leading the team
to a first-place tie in the regular season standings of the Alberta
Colleges Athletic Conference, with a record of 26-8-2.
“Being voted coach of the year by your peers is a
wonderful honour, especially in a tough conference and in your
first season as head coach,” said Theresa Hanson, UBC
Associate Director of Intercollegiate & High Performance Sport.
Graham has worked hard to turn our women’s hockey program
around and I’m really proud of the entire team and coaching
staff.”
Here are the women’s hockey Award winners &
All-Stars:
AWARDS
Player of the Year: Hayley Wickenheiser,
Calgary
Rookie of the Year: Jessica Kampjes, Alberta
Marion Hilliard CIS Student-Athlete Award nominee:
Tanya Morgan, Calgary
Coach of the Year: Graham Thomas, UBC
ALL-STARS
First
Team
Second Team
G: Danielle Dube,
UBC
Amanda Tapp, Calgary
D: Caitlin Macdonald, Manitoba
Christi Capozzi, UBC
D: Stephanie Ramsay,
Calgary Riana Magee,
Alberta
F: Iya Gavrilova,
Calgary
Nellie Minshull, Manitoba
F: Hayley Wickenheiser, Calgary Tatiana
Rafter, UBC
F: Cara Wooster, Saskatchewan Rianne Wight,
Regina
Previous selections by this year’s
All-Stars
Iya Gavrilova,
Cgy
2012 1st
Caitlin Macdonald,
Man 2011
2nd 2010 1st & CIS Rookie of the Year
Nellie Minshull,
Man
2012 2nd
Stephanie Ramsay, Cgy
2012 1st 2009 1st (w/Alberta)
Amanda Tapp,
Cgy
2011 2nd
Hayley Wickenheiser, Cgy 2012
1st 2011 1st
Rianne Wight,
Reg
2011 2nd
Cara
Wooster
2012 2nd 2011 2nd
Award winners are now finalists for national awards, to be handed
out by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) at the 2013
championships, hosted by the University of Toronto, March 7-10.
This weekend’s best-of-three Canada West final between the
Calgary Dinos and UBC Thunderbirds opens on Friday in Calgary, with
both teams already having qualified for Nationals.
About Canada West Universities Athletic
Association
Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four
conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), winning at
least 10 CIS national titles every year, 1997 to 2010. Comprised of
16 schools from the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
and British Columbia, Canada West produces numerous major award
winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with
many going on to athletic success around the globe in pro leagues
or events such as the Olympics, Paralympics or Universiade Games.
@cwuaa on Twitter. #cwTV / #cwhky