Nepinak-Sargent the picture of calm as Ice face biggest test yet

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This article was published 05/04/2023 (1276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jordyn Nepinak-Sargent was the MVP of the Manitoba Female U18 AAA Hockey League playoffs and she had the numbers to prove it.

The 17-year-old goaltender won all eight of her post-season starts, posting an astonishing .973 save percentage, 0.74 goals-against average and three shutouts to lead the Winnipeg Ice to the first provincial title in program history.

Two of those shutouts — a pair of 1-0 decisions over the defending champion Westman Wildcats — came in Games 2 and 3 of the best-of-five league final.

Now, Nepinak-Sargent and the Ice face perhaps an even bigger test when they head out on the road to take on the Regina Rebels in the Western Regional Championship.

The winner of the best-of-three series, which opens Friday, advances to the Esso Cup U18 national championship in Prince Albert, Sask., April 23-29.

Ice head coach Eugene Kaminsky knows he will have a big-game goaltender in place for Game 1.

“She’s come a long way,” said Kaminsky of Nepinak-Sargent prior to Wednesday’s practice at the hockey for all centre. “For perspective, last year in the playoffs our other goalie, Laura Melizza, played all our games over Jordyn because Laura was playing great and Jordyn maybe hadn’t found her game at that point. But I know I had a conversation with Jordyn earlier this year and she said she wanted to be the No. 1 goalie this year and I said, ‘Perfect.’ ”

Nepinak-Sargent, a Grade 12 student at West Kildonan Collegiate, has put in extra work while also enjoying the benefits of becoming a more mature player.

“I think my (first) year, I wanted to prove something when I didn’t really have anything to prove,” said Nepinak-Sargent. “And simplifying the game has helped a lot.”

Getting back to the basics meant eliminating bad goals from her game.

“Through hard work in practice she started to gain some confidence,” said Kaminsky. “Early on, Jordyn liked to make the big glove hand save — she’d liked to, not hot dog it, but show a little bit more than she needed to at times. She took that piece out of her game and she focused on stopping the puck and not allowing rebounds. So I think the maturity level in her grew during this time.”

Nepinak-Sargent is now a picture of calm in the net.

“It’s fully a mental thing — just slowing down and stepping back,” she said. “Taking a second and just not freaking out, I guess, as much… Last year, I felt like I had all the pressure in the world on me but in reality, I didn’t.”

While Nepinak-Sargent has been a rock in the Winnipeg net, teammate Breanne Comte has followed a similar career trajectory in 2022-23.

The 16-year-old from Centre scolaire Léo-Rémillard has morphed into the league’s highest scoring blue-liner, with 11 goals and 39 points in 51 regular-season games. In nine playoff games, she’s added four assists.

“I want to say the biggest difference between my game this year and last year is mostly my confidence,” said Comte. “Last year, I struggled a lot with it. Whereas this year, I had help getting it back… I think it comes with age and experience, first of all. And then I also had people on the side that helped me through it and helped me become more confident with the puck.”

Comte’s development surprised Kaminsky.

“She was good last year but I would never have anticipated she would get this strong this year,” said Kaminsky. “She’s taken some big steps this year and a lot of it is confidence.”

This weekend, Comte will be tasked with defending a powerful Regina team, led by Saskatchewan U18 scoring champion Greta Henderson.

“I’ve watched a couple of their games and they are really physical and big and super fast,” said the Grade 11 student. “Their style of play is going to be different than any other team that we’ve seen, just because of their overall skill.”

Kaminsky, noting the Rebels beat Westman 2-1 in tournament play earlier this season, has a positive outlook for the inter-provincial series.

“This last game against Westman was the probably the biggest win we’ve had in the program’s history and moving forward every game just gets that much bigger — it’s just another level,” said Kaminsky.

“I’ll be honest, I was a little concerned going in against Regina at first glance and then had an opportunity to pull back and take a look at what we have on our table and realized, you know, I’m not going to worry about Regina, we have a very good team and I’m anticipating Regina is going to have to worry about us a little bit more.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca