Oswald’s eyes on the prize

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This article was published 06/12/2023 (1011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Halle Oswald returned to the University of Alberta this season for one reason: to win a national hockey championship.

It’s the only thing missing from the Sanford product’s lengthy resume over the last three years as the starting goaltender for the Pandas.

“Obviously, we have goals along the way — Canada West, we obviously want to win that and getting into nationals is even harder this year with it being (held) in Canada West, so we have to win the (conference) — but it is all or nothing,” Oswald said via phone Wednesday.

The Pandas came close in 2018-19, her first season, winning the conference but falling short in the national semifinals. Two lost seasons ensued due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and disappointment prevailed last year as Alberta lost to Mount Royal in the conference semifinals. Oswald has reason to believe this season will be different.

“Over the years, having the same team, we’ve been building and building and every year has gotten better and we keep getting closer to our goal, but the culture within the Pandas is just unmatched,” the fifth-year netminder said. “You can feel the chemistry that we have, the connection, like, we are a family and I think that is such a driving factor in how we’re going to reach our goals and one of the reasons that I came back.

“It’s a feeling like no other.”

Oswald’s name already litters the Canada West record books as the all-time leader in goals against average (an eye-popping 1.10 in 73 games played), second in career save percentage (.944) and shutouts (21), and seventh in wins (50), all of which she built on last season en route to being named the conference’s Goalie of the Year.

Stunningly, she’s found a way to improve her numbers through the first half of this season.

The Pandas are 14-2 at the winter break, good for second in Canada West and just one point behind the UBC Thunderbirds, largely on the back of Oswald, who could be on her way to another nationally acclaimed season.

The 23-year-old psychology graduate boasts a 1.08 goals against average — good for second in the country — and a fourth-best .952 save percentage while posting shutouts in five of her 11 starts this year.

Pandas interim head coach Darren Bilawchuk said it’s Oswald’s intangible qualities that have made the Pembina Valley Hawks alum this dominant.

“I think the one thing about Ozzy is that her competitiveness has a drive above anything else. So, the accolades are great… but that next game out always drives her more,” said Bilawchuk, who has been with the program for 10 years, mostly as an assistant coach. “There never seems to be a drop-off, she always has that drive to compete and be the best out there.

“If you watched her when she first joined us to now… she’s always had that athleticism and she was always able to make the big saves and she’d scramble and do whatever she could do make that save, and now you watch her and she still has that ability when she needs to but she’s way calmer in the crease. Positionally, she’s a lot stronger.”

Oswald’s maturity has blossomed outside of the crease, too, Bilawchuk noted. She’s assumed a greater leadership role in her last season, taking the program’s two younger net minders under her wing, and it’s already paying dividends.

The Pandas entered the break on a six-game shutout streak, tying the Canada West record for consecutive blanks by a program in a season. Oswald is responsible for three of them, and the others are made up by second-year Misty Rey (one) and Boissevain’s Grace Glover (two), a first-year and one of six Manitobans on the Alberta squad.

“The season, we started off pretty strong… so I think kind of holding my ground at the start of the season, just trying to bring out a couple of wins,” Oswald said. “Moving into the past few games here, we’ve just kind of hit our groove.”

The Pandas will have to wait until the new year (Jan. 5 against Trinity Western) to try to break the record.

Oswald said her future beyond university is still undecided, though she’d be happy to get a crack at playing professionally in Europe or the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which will drop the puck for its inaugural season on New Year’s Day.

The Pandas usual head coach, Howie Draper, will lead the New York franchise this season.

That’s a conversation for another day, though. The present is about capitalizing on what Oswald believes is her best chance at winning a national title.

“It would mean the world to me. It’s been a long time coming and just for all the hard work — blood, sweat and tears — to pay off with a national championship would be unbelievable and to do it with the girls around me, it would be an incredible feeling,” she said.

“That is what we’re striving toward and I’m not stopping until we get there.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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