Teen-sensation McDonald making mark with Canada’s U18 team

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This article was published 15/08/2024 (739 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hayley McDonald has dominated everywhere she’s played but this week the 16-year-old forward from East St. Paul is taking her game to another level.

The former Balmoral Hall star is one of the youngest members of Canada’s U18 women’s hockey team currently taking on the rival Americans in a three-game exhibition series in Thorold, Ont.

With McDonald playing on the team’s top line with fellow Manitoban Sara Manness at centre and left-winger Maxine Cimoroni, Canada won Wednesday’s opener 4-2. On Thursday, McDonald scored her first goal of the series and Manness chipped in with a pair of assists during a 3-1 Canadian triumph.

The teams play the series finale Saturday.

Sara Manness, a La Salle product, and Toronto’s Cimoroni are both 17 years old and veterans of Canada’s bronze-medal winning worlds in Zug, Switzerland last season.

McDonald, meanwhile, is one of eight Canadian players born in 2008 and she aced her first Hockey Canada tryout earlier this month to earn a roster spot. Kate Manness was among the tryout camp invitees but was not chosen for the national team.

“I was confident but I didn’t want to be too confident to the point where I just assumed that I was on the team already,” said McDonald by phone. “I knew I had to work to find my spot and I think I did that throughout the tryouts and last season.”

McDonald laid the groundwork for international hockey with a sensational Grade 10 season at Balmoral Hall when she scored a whopping 58 goals and 93 points in 60 games for the Junior Women’s Hockey League team.

It was McDonald’s second season on a Balmoral roster.

As a Grade 9 rookie, she sniped 42 times and tallied 76 points in 53 games on the team’s top line with Sara Manness and Bemidji State recruit Morgan Smith.

Playing for the national U18 team during the summer series does not guarantee McDonald a spot on the team for the 2025 world championship in Vantaa, Finland, but it marked an important breakthrough.

“Sara told me all about (tryout camp) and how she had so much fun here and just created new friendships,” said McDonald. “And I think I did the exact same thing. Everybody’s like-minded here. Everybody deserves to be here. There’s not one player that doesn’t, and being able to play with all of them is really fun. It’s a really high pace and it’s something that I enjoy.”

Her excellent speed, shot and penchant for physical play is tailor-made for the modern international game.

“Hayley will one day wear the Team Canada jersey at the Olympics,” said Blazers head coach Sarah Zacharias. “She’s remarkable. She’s a really incredible hockey player and further than that, she’s just the best kid.

“And I say that about all three players that I would venture to guess will play in the Olympics one day. Hayley, Sara Manness and (former Team Canada U18 blue-liner) Avery Pickering were all Blazers together at one point, which is pretty crazy. It’s been a lot of fun watching them.”

Pickering and Smith will play college hockey this fall while Sara Manness and her twin sister Kate, a highly regarded blue-liner, will play their second season with the Burlington Barracudas of the Ontario Women’s Hockey League under-22 division before heading to Clarkson University.

In the off-season, McDonald decided to push herself further by transferring to the Rink Hockey Academy Kelowna for 2024-25, leaving a cherished hockey home at Balmoral.

“It was a really tough decision,” she explained. “It took me and my parents a while to actually confirm that we were going to go there, but the determining factor was just development.

“I love BH, love the coaches, love the program, but I just didn’t think I was going to be able to get to reach my full potential at BH and Kelowna just has a lot of skills coaches and lots of development and lots of good girls have come out of there. So we decided to go there.”

I’m hoping that we sweep the U.S., but it’s definitely going to be challenging,” said McDonald. “Because I know the rivalry is long and very competitive. It’ll be tough battles between the teams.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca