Good things come in threes.
So when Team Alberta selected players for its U18 female team, three Cochrane-area players made the grade.
Channia Alexander, Daria O’Neill and Hannah Olenyk are on Alberta’s roster for the Nov. 6-10 national U18 female hockey tourney at Canada Olympic Park’s Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary.
The trio, and the rest of Alberta’s U18 squad, tuned up for the tournament Oct. 12-13 in Calgary, splitting a pair of games with the Rocky Mountain Raiders bantam AAA boys squad at Max Bell Arena.
Team Alberta U18 head coach Mikko Makela had Alexander and O’Neill paired on defence against the Raiders boys in a 3-2 win Oct. 13.
“I think they are playing at Edge together, too, so obviously they are used to each other,” the former National Hockey League player and current head coach at Warner Hockey School said. “We play the players who play good. The parings, we start the game that way. They’ll fluctuate, they change, during the game. Right now, it looks like they’re going to be our top pair.”
Makela had them out in all situations against the Raiders – 5-on-5, power play and penalty-kill.
“They play in a tough league, the JWHL (Junior Women’s Hockey League), and a good program at Edge. There’s all the trust in the world in them for sure.”
Alexander said playing with someone she knows is beneficial, particularly when Team Alberta is a hastily-assembled squad featuring top players from across the province.
“You kind of know what they’re going to do when you go out there, so it helps,” she said of being paired with Edge School teammate O’Neill.
Makela understands he can’t re-invent the game under the time constraints he’s dealing with leading up to the U18 national tourney. A scrimmage here and an exhibition game there exposes the fragmented nature of building a provincial team for tournament play.
“We don’t want to change too many things because all of a sudden they aren’t comfortable any more, and that might be a problem,” he said of sticking with the clinical game plan typical of hockey at this level. But it won’t keep him from providing a few wrinkles of the Suomi hockey he grew up with in Finland. “We’ve got to make sure there’s a little bit of flair here and there, but that they’re still comfortable and able to do things.”
Along with his top defensive pair, he’ll be relying on forward Olenyk to carry Team Alberta’s play on offence. He was pleased with her effort in Alberta’s 3-2 win over the Raiders bantam boys.
“She went hard. She battled in the one-on-one battles. She needs to do that for us to be a successful team. We are counting on her. She’s a third-year veteran so she needs to play tough, play hard. And I thought she did that today.”
Olenyk, Alexander, O’Neill and the rest of Alberta’s best open the national female U18 hockey tournament Nov. 6 against Manitoba, 7 p.m. puck drop at COP.
