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| BC Breakers suspended; Strathmore to Host WWHL Final Instead |
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By Kristi Patton /
It may not be quite the way they wanted to have their name associated with the Western Women’s Hockey League final but the Strathmore Rockies are now the hosts of the league championships.
On Jan. 22 the B.C. Breakers, who were originally slated to host the championships later this year, announced they have been suspended from the league for the remainder of the season due to financial constraints for the team.
“It was an extremely hard decision to suspend the Breakers,” advised Bill Espey President WWHL. “We did everything in our power to resolve the situation. I feel so sorry for the BC players and the coaching staff who have sacrificed so much to be in this league. Female Hockey has come a long way at the Minor level, but at the Senior level the sponsorship support is still not there. We have the best female hockey players in the world in Canada and we need our players to be financially supported to remain at that level.”
Since the Breakers cannot finish the season, the WWHL has decided to proceed with the 2009 league championships in Calgary and Strathmore in March. Playoffs will take place on March 7 at the Olympic Oval in Calgary and then the championship game will be played in Strathmore on March 8.
“I am particularly disappointed with this result,” said Nancy Wilson, VP of the WWHL. “Many good people over the past several years, all volunteers, have committed a great deal of their time and effort to keep this team moving forward. It gave our skilled senior players coming out of a post-secondary school a competitive league in which to play. My hope is that this situation can be resolved in the near future.”
X-Treme splits weekend against winning Whitecaps
The Calgary Oval X-Treme got the opportunity for revenge on their league rivals, the Minnesota Whitecaps.
After losing in league play for the first time in two years against the Whitecaps earlier in the season, the X-Treme split a weekend series with them on Jan. 23 and 25. The two evenly matched teams featured some of the best players in the game including the only woman to ever play in the NHL, Manon Rheaume, who manned the nets for the Whitecaps in the second of two games.
“We definitely have close games when we play Minnesota,” said X-Treme defenceman Tessa Bonhomme. “Many of their players are on the American National Team, so we knew this game would be 60 minutes of hard work.”
In the first game of the weekend series, X-Treme forward Cheri Piper got the go-ahead goal in their win with an assist from Gina Kingsbury (her 20th of the season) as she continues to lead the league in points. The visiting Whitecaps notched three powerplay goals to defeat the X-Treme 6-3 in the second match up of the weekend.
X-Treme coach Bjorn Kinding noted the importance of winning against an evenly matched team which also kept them at the top of the league standings.
February will be the final month of regular season play.
For league schedule and statistics, visit www.westernwomenshockeyleague.com
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