Bell strikes gold in national team debut

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This article was published 04/09/2021 (1780 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It didn’t take Ashton Bell long to join the illustrious company of Canadian world champions.

Earlier this week in Calgary, the 21-year-old blue-liner from Deloraine, a member of the women’s national hockey team for less than four months, helped her Canadian teammates end a nine-year gold-medal drought at the world championship when they beat the U.S. 3-2 in overtime.

Bell, who took a break from her team at the University of Minnesota Duluth to join Canada’s centralization roster preparing for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, scored a goal and three points as Canada went unbeaten in seven tournament games.

She was joined by two other Manitobans on the gold-medal squad: first-pairing blue-liner Jocelyne Larocque of Ste. Anne and No. 3 goaltender Kristen Campbell of Brandon.

“The older girls, they were just in tears and it had been so long, and for us rookies our first worlds were pretty exciting and but you just wanted to win for those older girls,” said Bell by telephone from Deloraine Friday afternoon. “It’s been so long for them and I’m so honoured to be a part of this group and just very excited that we finally got that monkey off our back.”

The Canadian post-game celebration took a scary turn when forward Blayre Turnbull suffered a broken fibula in the joyous pileup after she leapt into the arms of goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens.

“I was somewhere on the bottom (of the pile) but luckily I didn’t get hurt or anything,” said Bell. “I’m always afraid someone’s fingers are gonna get stepped on. (Turnbull) was a huge part of this team and to see her go out like that was sad, but it was an amazing celebration. You could tell the girls haven’t celebrated in a long time because we just went all out.”

Turnbull is expected to return to the ice in six to eight weeks. Bell will rejoin her teammates in Calgary Sept. 8 when they continue preparations for Beijing.

On a personal level, the tournament was a triumph for Bell.

“My goal was just accepting my role and being a good teammate and staying positive on the bench and definitely getting some ice,” she said. “I definitely got a lot more comfortable out there and got more confident as the tournament went on.”

Although spectators were not permitted, each member of Team Canada was given two tickets per game to distribute to family. Bell’s parents, Tony and Teresa, were there for the duration.

“It was pretty nice to have a lot of family and friends there and they were definitely loud and made up for the (absence) of people so it was really exciting to have them there and to win in front of them was so awesome,” she said.

Bell was able to sooth some early nerves, especially prior to an pre-tournament exhibition game against Finland.

“One of the D (veteran Erin Ambrose) pulled me aside, she could tell I was freaking out,” said Bell with a laugh. “She was just like, ‘Go have fun out there, kid,’ and that definitely helped me like settle down. I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got this.’”

Bell skated on a third pairing with Ella Shelton at the worlds but she won’t be able to take a trip to the Olympics for granted.

All seven healthy defencemen dressed for Canada in the tournament. With injured blue-liners Micah Zandee-Hart and Meaghan Mikkelson expected to return in the coming weeks, the competition for Olympic roster spots begins again.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14