Queen’s Women’s Hockey, a veteran heavy team, is looking for a hot start off the gate.
Coming off a successful regular season where they finished first in the OUA East with a 19-6-0-1 record and 51 points, the women’s hockey team will look to extend their season a little longer. Their playoff run was cut short in the quarterfinals, losing to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks in a deciding game three, where a late goal by the Ridgebacks advanced them to the semi-finals.
READ MORE: Women’s Hockey season ends in Game three heartbreak
The Gaels look to wear their golden jersey’s in the playoffs again, this time in March. With the relatively same roster, Head Coach Morgan McHaffie is excited about what this group can accomplish. She sat down with The Journal to discuss.
McHaffie talked about how she gave her athletes some hockey homework over the summer to improve overall strength, as well as mental performance.
“Almost every player met a lot of our goals over the summer, so really happy with their hard work,” McHaffie said.
September is always a busy month for the team, not only navigating a new school semester, but also the team does not practice at the Memorial Centre until after the Kingston Fall Fair.
Despite the challenge, McHaffie says it’s a unique opportunity they have, and she tries to embrace it.
“We’re pretty much together every single day, so this is where we build the camaraderie and team chemistry,” McHaffie explained. “This year I’ve really tried to implement more fun, so now we’re in that mix of focus and fun which has been great.”
On the ice, the Gaels have stacked their exhibition schedule with high-end competition to prepare for the season. In spite of their losses, McHaffie called it “a really good test” but saw some “positive takeaways” going into the season.
As far as playing style, the team is looking to build off a highly explosive offence last year that saw them score 76 goals in 26 games, finishing tied for second in that category.
“We want to have a very relentless style of fore-check, and everyone really seems to buy into that.” Although risky at times, McHaffie says that they saw the reward from it last year to “turn over picks and transition quickly to provide more offence.”
The team, from a structure standpoint, is very deep with players who have been in the program. A standout new player for this year’s team is transfer Claire Sedgewick, JD ’29, coming from Yale hockey. Sedgewick is a Kingston native and has been inserted on the top line with last year’s top scorers, Jada Wood, ArtSci ’29 and Mikayla Cranney, ArtSci ’28.
McHaffie noted they are missing a big piece of their offence last year in graduating player and captain, Sophie Hudson, Sci ’26. However, McHaffie can see the lasting impact she’s made on her former teammates and the program.
“She’s definitely left her mark, and it has been resonating with this current team.”
Focusing on this year’s team, McHaffie says in her four years coaching, it’s the best training camp she’s seen.
“They’re playing harder against each[other] and having that respect to compete hard but without taking it personally.”
Going into the season, McHaffie’s team is concentrating on managing emotions, as she put it, “not trying to get too high or too low and fighting through the ups and downs of the year.”
The Gaels open their season on the road against the Ridgebacks on Oct. 16, hoping to get revenge on the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year.
Tags
Memorial Centre, OUA, women's hockey
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.