Bisons women setting sights on CIS title

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Bisons head coach Jon Rempel with promising first-year players Rachele Bosc (left) and Caitlin MacDonald. (DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

When you start at the top, the only place to go is higher, according to the University of Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team's two 17-year-old rookies.

Centre Rachele Bosc and defenceman Caitlin MacDonald, both born in 1992, have already been playing key roles in pre-season play for the Bisons and will be bringing more of the same as the defending Canada West conference champion Bisons open the 2009-10 season this weekend in Edmonton.

The Bisons, No. 3 in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport pre-season rankings, will meet the Pandas in the University of Alberta's Clare Drake Arena on Friday and Saturday. The Bisons beat the Pandas in their own building last March to win the first conference title in the Bisons program's 13-year history.

"We want to ensure we can defend that (title) and we want to be better than last year," said Bosc, one of six former Manitoba under-18 team members joining the Bisons this season. She and MacDonald both played for the Balmoral Hall Blazers preparatory team last season.

"We want to make sure we keep going hard and instead of just being Canada West (champions), we want to win the whole CIS. It's pressure, but it's good pressure. We want to live up to that name and we don't want to disappoint."

Bosc, whose birthday is Jan. 31, started Grade 1 a year early and has been ahead of her time throughout her school and hockey career.

She and MacDonald will lead the Bisons' youth movement, as they are among seven first-year players head coach Jon Rempel recruited to replace seven graduating players from last season's championship team.

Also joining the Bisons are Amy Lee, Jordyn Hrehirchuk, Kristin Cockerill and goaltenders Tara Lacquette and Leiette Klassen.

"We've got some work to do. We're just not as deep as we were in the past, but the upside is pretty big," said Rempel, in his sixth season as head coach. "I know in two or three years, when I look back at this recruiting year, I'll go, 'Holy smokers, that was quite a year!' I already think that, but when I see the development of where some of these kids can go, it'll be one of our best ever.

"It certainly is a very different team (from last year) and there will be a growth process. I thought it would be difficult to mesh all these new people here, but it's happened pretty quickly."

The Bisons, who had a program-best 21-2-1 record last season, will rely on some familiar faces in veteran goaltender Stacey Corfield, forward Tammy Brade, the Bisons' top goal-scorer last year with 19, forward Becca King (12 points last season), conference all-star Nellie Minshull and veteran defencemen Erica Holmes and Chelsea Braun.

Fourth-year forward Amy Coates will serve as captain, with Addie Miles, Becca King, Erica Holmes and Kacey Funk as alternate captains.

Rempel said he likes starting this season in Alberta, where the Bisons won the conference championship last season. The two wins in the conference final series were his program's first-ever victories in Clare Drake Arena.

"Going in there and just knowing we can win in that building, that's a huge thing for this group and our program," said Rempel, whose team had lost five straight playoff series to Alberta in Edmonton. "For me personally, I feel less pressure because people don't ask me about it anymore: 'Can you beat Alberta?'

"But once you get to that level and you feel how good it is to do that, you want to keep doing it. I'm not even going to try to lie about that."

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

Three key players

to keep an eye on

The defending conference champion University of Manitoba Bisons women's hockey team opens the 2009-10 Canada West season on Friday and Saturday in Edmonton, where they will meet the University of Alberta Pandas. Here's three players to watch, with head coach Jon Rempel's comments:

"ö Stacey Corfield: Fifth-year goaltender and a CIS all-Canadian last year, whose skills and leadership will be a key for the Bisons.

Rempel: "She's a completely different goalie than she was five years ago in her technical and mental development, her confidence... She's probably the best leader we do have on this team."

"ö Addie Miles: Third-year centre and a first-team conference all-star last year. She plays the point on the power play.

Rempel: "Addie has really matured in the last two years... Her work ethic has become so much better and her sense of who she is and the profound impact she can have on other people around her."

"ö Erica Holmes: Fifth-year defenceman, assistant captain and a three-time academic all-Canadian.

Rempel: "Erica's in her last year, so she understands what it takes to get it done. She's had a lot of success here and she and Chelsea Braun will play a lot of minutes for us."

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 15, 2009 C6