Young Gophers squad sets the stage for success

Garden City

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (255 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s good to be a Gopher lately.

The Garden City Gophers girls hockey team was in third place at press time in the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League’s second division, involved in a tight battle for second with the Selkirk Royals. With an 12-5-0 record and only a half-dozen games remaining before playoffs, the Gophers are in a good position to take a run at the Sanford Sabres, the defending champs, for the division title.

“I’m very surprised with where we’re at,” said second-year coach Duane Barkley. “We have three rookies this year, we lost five veterans from last year, so we actually only have one Grade 12 player this year. My goal for the season was to be happy to finish .500, not having a lot of veterans. And it’s better than last year’s. My expectation was a building year, but the Grade 9s have been a big eye opener. They play all on a line together, and they hold their own against girls four years older than them.”

Despite the team’s relative youth, the Gophers have taken on a strong defensive identity this season, which has proven to be the key to its success thus far.

“We run a very tight defensive system that they all buy into,” Barkley said. “They have a very strong team play, that’s for sure.”

Leading the defence is Abigail Gabriele, the team’s lone Grade 12 player, though she has missed a few games, owing to work commitments, Barkley said. Still, she has two goals and five assists in 12 games at press time.

“The Grade 11s have stepped up,” Barkley added. “We only have four (on defence). Some of the girls play forward and defence, because (defence) is missing often with other commitments.”

While Barkley was reluctant to call the Gophers an offensively gifted squad, the girls have scored 48 goals for, while allowing only 37 through 16 games. Forwards Alyssa Downing and Camryn Hrankowski, both in Grade 11 and part of the Gophers’ leadership group, along with Grade 10 Jessica Murdock, have accounted for over half the team’s goals so far.

“They’ve stepped up and gave us an offensive end,” Barkley said, noting that line also contributes to the power play.

At press time, Downing had 18 goals and 11 assists, Hrankowski seven goals and 14 assists, and Murdoch eight goals and eight assists.

Grade 11 goaltender Mackenzie Worden, who has started all 16 games for the Gophers this year without a backup, is also a big key to the team’s success, Barkley added.

“Our goaltender is a very big part of our team,” he said. “She’s one of the top in the division, and was last year, as well.”

With only a handful of regular season games remaining, Barkley hopes the team can play to its strengths leading into the playoffs.

“Our goal is to take things one game at a time; never look too far ahead,” he said.“But I think they can go quite a ways. The only team that gives us trouble is the team in first place (Sanford) — they always have a strong team. We’ve only lost 2-0 and 3-0, and tied them with nine players in the Sturgeon tournament.”

Regardless of how the season plays out, Barkley is confident that Garden City is setting itself up for future success, as well.

“I tell them you can’t win every game,” he said. “When you lose you learn more than when you win. That’s hockey.”