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Players of color shine at 2019 CWHL All-Star Game in Toronto

21 Monday Jan 2019

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Brigette Lacquette, CWHL, Erica L. Ayala, NWHL, Sarah Nurse

 

When it comes to covering women’s ice hockey, Erica L. Ayala has it locked down! She traveled to Toronto to cover the 2019 Canadian Women’s Hockey League All-Star Game. Below is the sister’s dispatch from the all-star weekend. Erica will be rocking the mic at the 2019 National Women’s Hockey League All-Star Game in Nashville next month as part of an all-female broadcast crew. You can follow her at https://ericalayala.com/.

TORONTO – Over 30 of the best and brightest stars of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League competed at Scotiabank Arena Sunday night at the 2019 All-Star Game. Three players of color – Brigette Lacquette, Sarah Nurse, and Jessica Wong – were among the top CWHL stars.

Wong and Team Gold shutdown Nurse, Lacquette and the rest of Team Purple to secure an 8-4 win to cap All-Star Weekend. Canadian Olympian Brianne Jenner tallied three goals to lead all scorers and became the third player to record a hat trick in a CWHL All-Star Game (Jessica Jones and Jillian Saulnier, 2017).

Markham Thunder goaltender Liz Knox and Calgary Inferno defender Brigette Lacquette conduct ceremonial face-off at the 2019 CWHL All-Star Game in Toronto (Photo/Chris Tanouye).

Ahead of All-Star Weekend, Lacquette was voted captain of Team Purple by fans, receiving 55% of the vote. “To see the percentages was kind of crazy to me,” Lacquette told the media Saturday.

The Dauphin, Manitoba native played college hockey at the University of Minnesota-Duluth before being drafted to the Calgary Inferno. She won a Clarkson Cup with the Inferno in her rookie season and returned again to the CWHL Clarkson Cup Final in the 2016-17 season. However, this is her first All-Star appearance in her four-year professional career. Lacquette ranks second among defenders with 17 points (2 goals, 15 assists).

Calgary Inferno defender Brigette Lacquette.

Lacquette was humbled to serve as captain of Team Purple and represent her country and the Indigenous community at center ice Sunday.

“This past year, I’ve been visiting a lot of Indigenous communities and whatnot, sharing my story. I think that helps with [visibility] and shows them they can really achieve anything they set their mind to,” Lacquette shared over the weekend.

Hamilton, Ontario-native Sarah Nurse joined Lacquette on Team Purple for the weekend. Like Brigette, Nurse enjoys being a role model for young players, especially black players. Nurse played NCAA Division I hockey at the University of Wisconsin and was recently named to the WCHA 20th Anniversary Team.

After Wisconsin, Nurse made her first Canadian Olympic team and earned silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. She was pre-drafted to the Toronto Furies for the 2018-19 season and is second in scoring (10 goals, 9 assists) behind veteran Natalie Spooner.

Toronto Furies forward Sarah Nurse, who played for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Being a member of the Toronto Furies, Nurse and her teammates were very busy promoting the All-Star Game leading up to Sunday. From photo shoots to clinics, and TV appearances, it was a whirlwind.

One day, Nurse hopes to draw the Black Girl Hockey Club north of the border to a Toronto Furies game.

“I follow them on Twitter,” said Nurse of the women’s hockey fan group. “That would be so cool. There are a lot of Canadian cities that have hockey and I think it would be absolutely incredible. I heard they went out to Washington and that actually got a lot of media coverage. It was so cool to hear about that.”

Jessica Wong was drafted as a starting defender by Team Gold captain Liz Knox.  She represented both Canada and China in Toronto on Sunday. Wong grew up in Nova Scotia and played two seasons with the Calgary Inferno upon graduating from Minnesota-Duluth.

The CWHL Purple and Gold All-Star Teams (Photo/Chris Tanouye).

She was retired when she heard about the CWHL expansion to China last season. She dusted off the skates to accept the challenge of growing the women’s game in a place close to her heart. Wong has a grandmother originally from Shenzhen, the city that is home to the Shenzhen KRS (Kunlin Red Stars) Vanke Rays expansion team. She jumped at the opportunity to come out of retirement and connect to her familial roots. Wong is a top-five scorer for Shenzhen with three goals and 11 assists.

Shenzhen KRS Vanke Red Stars defender Jessica Wong.

As part of the weekend, CWHL All-Stars participated in community events at the Ronald McDonald House, MLSE Launchpad, and the Canadian Blood Donation Clinic. Nurse and Furies teammates Renata Fast and Mellisa Channel participated in a special series sponsored by Adidas Canada. The Furies All-Stars hosted clinics, panel discussions and more for two youth teams – the Ancaster Avalanche and Burlington Barracudas. The youth teams were also hooked up with some Adidas gear and the ultimate behind-the-scenes experience at the All-Star Game.

“Yesterday, the Community Day went really well,” commented CWHL Commissioner and recent Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Jayna Hefford Sunday evening. “At the end of the game, seeing the players on the ice, not really wanting to leave the ice, to me that shows that they were having a good time.”

CWHL action resumes as Lacquette and the Calgary Inferno host Wong and the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays tomorrow at 7:45 pm MST. Next week, Nurse and the Furies return to action in China to take on Shenzhen.

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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Sarah Nurse’s jersey, Brigette Lacquette’s stick get call from Hockey Hall of Fame

08 Thursday Mar 2018

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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2018 Winter Olympics, Brigette Lacquette, Calgary Inferno, Canadian Women's Hockey League, National Women's Hockey League, Sarah Nurse, University of Wisconsin

Canadian women’s Olympic team hockey players Sarah Nurse and Brigette Lacquette aren’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame – but items they used at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang are.

The Hall collected forward Nurse’s white Team Canada jersey and one of defenseman Lacquette’s Bauer sticks shortly after the Winter Games’ conclusion on Feb. 25. Both artifacts are now at the Hockey museum in Toronto.

“It’s an honor to have represented Canada on the Olympic stage and have a piece of my journey in the Hockey Hall of Fame,” Nurse told me recently. “I hope to inspire young girls of color to break barriers and play hockey, and never give up on whatever dreams they may have.”

The jersey that Canadian forward Sarah Nurse wore and the stick that defender Brigette Lacquette used at the 2018 Winter Olympics are in the Hockey Hall of Fame (Photo/Phil Pritchard/HHoF)

The items from the Silver Medal-winning Canadian players join the puck that Korean unified women’s Olympic hockey team forward Randi Griffin used to score Korea’s first-ever Olympic ice hockey goal.

Sarah Nurse’s Team Canada jersey and Brigette Lacquette’s stick have a home in the Hockey Hall of Fame (Photo/Phil Pritchard/HHoF).

The presence of Nurse’s jersey and Lacquette’s stick in the Hall are significant. Nurse is believed to be the first black woman to play for Team Canada in the Winter Olympics. Lacquette is the first First Nation woman to skate on a Canadian women’s Olympic squad. She is the daughter of a Cote First Nation mother and a Metis father.

Nurse, a former University of Wisconsin star and a 2016 second round draft pick of the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League, scored a goal in five games in PyeongChang.

Embed from Getty Images

She is the cousin of Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse and University of Connecticut women’s basketball point guard and 2016 Canadian Olympic hoopster Kia Nurse.

Lacquette, a defender for the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League and a former University of Minnesota-Duluth standout, recorded an assist in the five Winter Olympics contests and had a plus-minus rating of plus-3.

Embed from Getty Images

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. Download the Color of Hockey podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

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Lacquette becomes first Indigenous woman to play on Canada’s Olympic hockey team

23 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by William Douglas in Uncategorized

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Brigette Lacquette, Calgary Inferno, Canadian Women's Hockey League, First Nation

Brigette Lacquette hasn’t set skate on Winter Olympic ice yet,  and she’s already scored.

Team Canada defenseman Brigette Lacquette (Photo/Dave Holland/Hockey Canada Images).

The 25-year-old defenseman from Mallard, Manitoba, achieved a dream last week when she became the first First Nations member to be selected to Canada’s Olympic women’s hockey team. She will compete at the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, in February.

“It’s pretty special,” Lacquette told Sportsnet.ca. “Growing up, I really didn’t have that female role model to look to. It’s just very special for me to be that role model for young First Nations kids across Canada.”

And what a role model she has been. Lacquette, who is Cote First Nation, won silver medals with Canada’s national women’s team at the 2017 4 Nations Cup in Tampa, the 2017 Nations Cup in Germany and Austria, the 2016 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada, and the 2015 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Malmo, Sweden.

Team Canada defenseman Brigette Lacquette in action at the 2016 Women’s 4 Nations Cup against Finland (Photo/Riku Laukkanen/Hockey Canada Images).

Lacquette was also a member of Canada’s gold medal-winning team at the 2010 IIHF Women’s Under-18 Championship in Chicago.

Last season, she was the second-leading scoring defenseman for the Calgary Inferno of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League with 4 goals and 10 assists in 19 games. She has a goal in eight games for the Inferno this season.

Words can’t describe this feeling… 🍁😊 So humbled and honored to represent this amazing country🇨🇦 #PyeongChang2018 @HC_Women @TeamCanada pic.twitter.com/sAlTczX9ha

— Brigette Lacquette (@briglacquette) December 23, 2017

She played at the University of Minnesota-Duluth from 2011-12 to 2014-15 and tallied 20 goals and 49 assists in 106 games at the NCAA Division I school.

“I’ve worked my whole life towards this, and just being that role model for young First Nations is huge,” Lacquette told hockeycanada.ca in September. “I didn’t have that growing up, have that women’s hockey player to look up to that was Aboriginal, so being the first one, it means a lot.”

Follow the Color of Hockey on Facebook and Twitter @ColorOfHockey. And download the Color of Hockey podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud and Google Play.

 

 

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