Collège Jeanne-Sauvé filling the net in women’s high school hockey

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This article was published 26/12/2023 (673 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Collège Jeanne-Sauvé has iced some lethal offences in the young history of its female hockey program, but the 2023-24 iteration just might be the best yet.

The Olympiens (11-2-1-0) have bulged the twine a league-leading 72 times through their first 14 contests in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League’s top division. The next closest is St. Mary’s Academy Flames (12-2-1-0), which has 68 goals but has played one more game. Glenlawn (11-2-0-0) is in third with 47 markers.

The program’s best offensive output — since 2017-18 (the earliest stats available) — came in 2021-22 when it led Division 1 with 112 goals en route to its second league title. This season, they’re on pace for 113 markers and are in second place with 34 points, two back of the Flames.

To see the engine of this well-oiled machine, look no further than Payton Durand, Jeri Lafleche and Kennedy Carriere. The trio of wingers, who have played as pairs on rotating lines and only see each other on the top power-play unit, has combined for 27 goals and 61 points this season.

“I feel like everybody’s played with somebody on this team before,” said Lafleche, who is tied with Carriere for the team lead with 14 assists.

Added Durand, who leads the team with 15 goals: “We definitely know how each other play and that helps us.”

Durand and Carriere started the year on a line together while the team battled several injuries but we’re separated in mid-November. Now Carriere wings with Lafleche on the top line, centred by Olivia Price, who has 12 goals and two assists despite missing five games with a concussion.

Durand and Lafleche, both in Grade 11, were in Grade Nine when the Olympiens won it all 2022 and have grown accustomed to the program’s high-powered offences. This season, the squad has embraced a more team-oriented style, they said, and it’s paying dividends.

“We’re passing a lot,” said Lafleche, who finished 10th in the Free Press’s inaugural Top 10 poll of high school coaches last season. “Like, our passing this year has been really good, and, like I said, we’ve all played with each other so much that we have plays that are set that we’ve been doing for years that are connecting this year. We’re a very offensive team.”

Added Durand: “We know how to play and trust each other. It just works. And even the new girls coming in, it’s all just meshed really well together.”

Carriere is one of the four Grade Nine members on the Olympiens. She’s shown the ability to adapt with different linemates while continuing to find ways to produce.

“It’s going well. I like all of the girls that I’ve played with and we all play well together— it just helps, it’s been a good year,” said Carriere. “We’ve been moving the puck well to each other and creating opportunities to score.”

Head coach Melissa Boulanger agreed that it’s not easy for a young player to step into the lineup and play against some of the top Grade 12s in the city, but said it points to a culture that’s been building since she took over in 2019.

“I think that speaks to our leadership group,” Boulanger said. “Those girls are very accepting and made sure those (Grade) Nine’s felt included right from the beginning and feeling comfortable on the ice because (Carriere) is in Grade Nine and there’s Grade 12s on the ice. All of our Grade Nine’s have been excelling this year and it’s been great to see.”

The Olympiens have just three Grade 12s on the roster this season. The core of the team (seven players) is in Grade 11, while Boulanger expects several budding stars will emerge from the Grade Nine and 10 group.

Certainly, more goals are on tap for this group when they return from the holiday break. The Olympiens’ trio of lethal offensive weapons said it’s more focused on protecting its own end, with hopes it will push them past the playoff semi-finals, where their season ended a year ago.

“We want to keep the points against us as low as possible just because I feel like that’s where we get bitten, is where we’re up by five and all of a sudden we let a bunch in. Then we get pretty low so, just try to keep that as low as possible,” said Lafleche. CJS has allowed 34 goals this season, the second-fewest in the division.

“I think we want to get back to where we were last year and have that chance again because we didn’t give it our best shot last year trying to get to finals so, hopefully, we get to the same position this year.”

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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