PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – With just over one month until the puck drops on the 2023 Esso Cup, Hockey Canada and the Prince Albert organizing committee have unveiled the official tournament schedule for Canada’s Women’s U18 National Club Championship.

The host Prince Albert Bears will be joined by five regional champions (Atlantic, Ontario, Pacific, Quebec, West), April 23-29 at the Art Hauser Centre.

“The 2023 Esso Cup host committee has been working hard over the past few years preparing to host a world-class event in Prince Albert,” said Robin Wildey, chair of the local organizing committee. “Despite the challenges of not being able to host the event when we originally planned, we have received tremendous support from sponsors and the community. We are grateful for the opportunity to host the Esso Cup and provide the City of Prince Albert with national exposure, and we look forward to welcoming the competing teams and hockey fans next month.”

The tournament kicks off on April 23, with the West champions taking on the Quebec titlists at 12 p.m. CT, followed by the Ontario winners taking on the Pacific champs at 3:30 p.m. CT. Opening day will conclude with the host Bears beginning their quest for the Esso Cup against the Atlantic champions at 7 p.m. CT.

Full-event ticket packages for the 2023 Esso Cup can be purchased for $65, including fees, at HockeyCanada.ca/Tickets. The package includes one ticket to all 15 preliminary-round games, both semifinals, and the bronze and gold medal games. Single-game tickets will be available for purchase at a later date.

“We are thrilled to bring the Esso Cup back to Saskatchewan, as we know the host committee and local community in Prince Albert and Hockey Saskatchewan have been patiently waiting to welcome the top women’s U18 club teams from across Canada,” said Dean McIntosh, vice-president of strategic partnerships and community impact with Hockey Canada. “The unveiling of the schedule is an important step as Prince Albert prepares to welcome the nation, and we know the community will provide a memorable experience for the competing teams and players, as well as their families and local hockey fans.”

The Esso Cup will make its return to the Land of the Living Skies for the third time, with Prince Albert joining Regina (2010) and Weyburn (2016) as Saskatchewan hosts. The Bears will look to become the first host team to win the national title and the third from Saskatchewan; the Notre Dame Hounds (2011) and Weyburn Gold Wings (2014) both captured gold medals.

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the gold medal game on April 29; please check local listings for details.

Historically, the Esso Cup has generated more than $1 million in local economic impact, with event proceeds being directed to supporting women’s hockey initiatives and development in the local community. As with all Hockey Canada national championships, the net proceeds from all ticket sales will remain in the host community.

For more information on Hockey Canada and the 2023 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup, or follow along via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

OKOTOKS, Alta. – The Durham West Lightning has won the Esso Cup, claiming Canada’s National Women’s U18 Club Championship on the back of a 27-save performance from Sophie Helfenstein (Ajax, Ont.) in a 4-1 win over the Fraser Valley Rush on Sunday at Pason Centennial Arena.

It’s the first national title for the Lightning, who finished third at the 2017 Esso Cup in Morden, Man. The win also marks the fourth championship for the Ontario Region – the Thunder Bay Queens won in 2010, Sudbury Lady Wolves in 2015 and Brantford Ice Boltz in 2016.

“I’m so proud of these girls,” Durham head coach Patrick Teggart said after the game. “They have worked so hard to get here, and to be rewarded is a great feeling. My joy lies with them; they deserve this. We talked all week about how important it was to stay together and win as a team and that is exactly what we did tonight.”

The Lightning opened the scoring late in the first period when Courtney Poelman (Oshawa, Ont.) fired a seeing-eye shot through a screen. For Poelman, it was an opportune time to record her first point of the Esso Cup.

After an early penalty kill, the Lightning added a second-period marker from Zoe Ziotas (Markham, Ont.) to open a two-goal lead at the second intermission.

“This feels like a dream,” said Lightning captain Jessica Pellerin (Bowmanville, Ont.). “These girls have had such positive energy all week both in the room and on the ice. This is one of the greatest experiences of my life and to share it with this group, it’s a special feeling.”

Ella Inglis (Pickering, Ont.) put the game on ice with a wicked wrist shot off the post and in midway through the third period before Sadie Hotles (Markham, Ont.) found the empty net with 2:24 left.

The Rush broke Helfenstein’s shutout bid in the third period when Aynsley D’Ottavio (Rosedale, B.C.) found a loose puck for her third goal of the tournament. Despite the loss, Fraser Valley achieved the best finish ever by a B.C. team at the national championship.

Full game stats are available at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup .

Esso Cup Tournament Awards:

Most Valuable Player – Sadie Hotles (Durham West Lightning)
Top Forward – Vienna Rubin (Fraser Valley Rush)
Top Defence – Abigayle Poitras (Durham West Lightning)
Top Goaltender – Eva Fillipova (Notre Dame Hounds)
Most Sportsmanlike Player – Sophia Zuck (Prince Albert Bears)
Esso Kids Scholarship Program: Most Dedicated Athlete Award – Megan Breum (Fraser Valley Rush)

Prince Albert, Sask., and the Prince Albert Bears of the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League will play host to the 13th edition of Canada’s National Women’s U18 Club Championship in April 2023.

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram.

Fraser Valley Rush 3, Notre Dame Hounds 1 (Semifinal)

• Game stats available here 

Durham West Lightning 4, Northern Selects 0 (Semifinal)

• Game stats available here

Next game - Sunday, May 22: 

• Championship: Fraser Valley Rush vs. Durham West Lightning (5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT) 

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22 (5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT). Canada’s National Women’s U18 Club Championship will feature an all-female broadcast crew, including two-time Olympic gold medallist Cheryl Pounder, Kenzie Lalonde and Brit Dort.  

Quotes: 

“Our motto all year has been that we need to focus on the things we can control. Whether it’s a penalty or a missed chance, our girls know that they need to make the best of that situation. We took a penalty in the second today but a good shot block leads to a goal for us right away. We executed our motto and now we have a chance in the big game.”

- Fraser Valley head coach Tony Lindsay on his team’s semifinal victory

“I’m so happy for our group and proud of these girls. This week has been a great experience. We didn’t know if we could even win our provincials, and now we’re in the Esso Cup final and that is something we won’t take lightly. We have to forget about all the distractions tomorrow and play our game.”

- Vienna Rubin (Fraser Valley Rush) on the chance to play for a national title

“I want us to keep things as simple as possible and play the game we’ve played all year. There is nothing different about tomorrow than any other game we’ve played. I won’t lie to them and try and say it’s not a big game, but once we’re inside the glass it’s just another game, and our girls have to remember that.”

- Durham West head coach Patrick Teggart on the message to his team ahead of Sunday

“We’re all very excited to be here, but we need to keep our heads in it because the work isn’t done. We didn’t come all this way to just make it to the final; we want to win it all. We’ve talked about it in the room, and we know we have to block out all the noise of being on TV and playing under the bright lights. If we stay dialed in, we will be fine.”

- Sadie Hotles (Durham West Lightning) on playing on the national stage

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along  via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

Durham West Lightning 5, Fraser Valley Rush 2

• Game stats available here 

Notre Dame Hounds 4, Remparts du Richelieu 2

• Game stats available here

Northern Selects 2, Prince Albert Bears 0

• Game stats available here

Next games - Saturday, May 21: 

• Semifinal 1: Notre Dame Hounds vs. Fraser Valley Rush (11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT) 
• Semifinal 2: Northern Selects vs. Durham West Lightning (3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT) 

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22; (5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT). Both semifinals will be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup.

Quotes: 

“We’re ready for the pressure this weekend. We’ve talked all week about how we want to play for the title and be on TSN for our family and friends. There is work to be done and we can’t change our routine. What we’re doing has worked to get us here, and we want to keep it going.”

- Jessica Pellerin (Durham West Lightning) on the pressure of the playoff round

“Our goal was to get to this position, and we are feeling good right now. Every team is tired, but we have been here before and we know what we have to do to be ready for tomorrow.”

- Ellie Gauvin (Notre Dame Hounds) on heading into the playoffs with the right mindset 

“This one feels good because we have worked so hard for this opportunity. We don’t want to get too high as we know there is still work to be done. We’re facing the number-one team and know that it’s not going to be easy; we’re ready for the challenge and I’m excited to go through it with these girls.”

- Jorja Burrows (Northern Selects) on clinching a berth in the final four, just the second Atlantic team to ever do so

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along  via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Hockey runs in the blood of Northern Selects forward Megan Smith. Both of her grandfathers played the game; her father, Bryan, played and is the coach of St. Francis Xavier University women’s hockey team.

With a love of the game generations deep in her family, Megan knew she wanted follow in their footsteps and laced up her skates at five years old.

“It’s like a legacy,” the now 18-year-old says. “My family has played hockey and my brother [Oliver] just loved the sport so much.”

Megan’s younger brother, Oliver, would tag along to watch her games when she began her hockey journey. Soon enough, he followed his sister and began playing hockey when he turned five years old.

“He was so antsy in the stands. He just wanted to be on the ice,” Megan says. “He was so eager to get on the ice and the minute you could put skates on his feet, he was off, he was going. He had so much energy.”

Together with their older sister Emma, all three Smith siblings were very close growing up in Antigonish, N.S.

“We were so competitive,” Megan says. “We were always playing mini-sticks together, shooting basketballs outside, going hiking and fishing and camping. We’ve always been so close. So even when Oliver got sick, we were there to support him. We couldn’t be as active, but we made up for it playing video games, watching movies and playing board games.”

When Oliver began his first year playing U11, his father Bryan noticed that something seemed off while he was on the ice.

“He wasn’t as fast,” Bryan says. “He was very quick, very agile. Then when the fall came for tryouts, he just didn’t have that same flexibility, agility.”

Oliver was complaining about his leg and groin being sore, so he began physiotherapy to try to strengthen his leg. Along with the pain, he started to feel unwell. That brought Oliver back to his doctor in February of 2017, when he was officially diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in his left hip, a rare type of cancer that occurs in bones or soft tissue.

With his mobility limited and Oliver spending more time at home as he underwent treatment, the Smiths brainstormed what activities he could do to pass the time. Bryan had some woodworking experience, so he thought of creating a robot out of wood and hockey laces. Nicknamed the “Olliebot,” Oliver worked with his family to make more of the wooden robots to give to friends.

It wasn’t until Bruce MacPherson, the father of Megan’s teammates Bree MacPherson and Mairead MacPherson, asked to buy an Olliebot that they realized this fun family activity would be a great way to give back to the community.

“We were like, ‘Wow, we could sell these,’” Bryan says. “We knew that Oliver’s cancer, Ewings cancer, there wasn’t a lot of fundraising for it. It’s very rare, and there isn’t a lot of fundraising for childhood cancer in general. … We knew we had to direct it to that.”

The Smiths launched Olliebots for public sales in the middle of November 2017. By Dec. 23 of that year, they had sold 273 unique Olliebots. Proceeds go to the Ewings Cancer Foundation of Canada and support other families in Nova Scotia who have been affected by childhood cancer.

“Each one comes with a little tag and then hockey laces and wooden blocks, and then there’s customizable stickers and googly eyes,” Megan explains. “Each Olliebot is actually signed with a heart inside an O. It’s on the left hip, which is where Oliver’s cancer was.”

There are quite a few notable members of the hockey community that own an Olliebot. Pittsburgh Penguins captain and Nova Scotia native Sidney Crosby has one, plus he signed an Olliebot for Oliver to keep. Toronto Maple Leafs star Mitch Marner, Mike Babcock, Darryl Sittler, Ron MacLean and Don Cherry each have an Olliebot. Blayre Turnbull, Jill Saulnier and Troy Ryan of Canada’s National Women’s Team also have their own.

With time, the Olliebot project became a community fundraising effort. Schools in Antigonish have helped to prepare wood for the Smiths or host Olliebot nights where teachers and students help to create the wooden robots. Megan’s teammates on the Selects also helped in gathering supplies.

“The girls that are playing on my current team, I played with them all the way up in Selects. Some years, we get to the end of the season and the coaches will be like, ‘OK girls, untie your skates, take the laces out and pass them to the Smiths,’ and we make Olliebots out of skate laces right from my teammates’ skates,” Megan says. “I mean, I’m watching people undo their skates to give to my family so we can give money to research for cancer. It’s just unbelievable the support that you can get from a group of 20 girls.”

Unfortunately, Oliver lost his battle with cancer in June 2019, one day after his 12th birthday. Just as the hockey community rallied around the Smith family when Oliver was diagnosed, the community continues to provide them with support and love since his passing.

“I’ve been with [my teammates] since Oliver got diagnosed all the way up until he died in 2019, and they all came to his funeral, they were in the front row at his funeral,” Megan says. “They were all around, and even the coaches too.”

  

There are good days and bad days when grieving the loss of a loved one, but Megan has shown resilience and perseverance. Her love of the game has also helped her over the past few years.

“Hockey has been the one place where I feel I can go and that [it’s] just a positive outlet,” she says. “Nobody meets you with a frown face, everyone meets you with a smile and they ask you how you’re doing, and they talk about Oliver in the most positive ways. They tell you just how great of a sister or mother or father you are to him and how proud you should be just to carry on his legacy.”

Almost three years later, there continues to be signs and tributes to Oliver in the Nova Scotia hockey community. Megan switched her jersey to Oliver’s No. 2 to continue to carry on his legacy—plus Oliver’s two best friends wear No. 2 and No. 22 to remember him. The Selects also have decals on the back of their helmets that feature an O, a heart and a No. 2.

In honour of Oliver, the Smith family continues to make Olliebots and donate their proceeds to the Ewings Cancer Foundation of Canada. While Oliver used to sign each Olliebot with his signature O and heart, Megan now continues that tradition. Each member of the Selects has their own Olliebot that sits in their dressing room stalls. There’s even an Olliebot sitting outside on their local arena sign.

“It’s not glued there, it just sits there and it has sat there for like three years,” Megan says. “Nobody takes it. Everyone knows what it is and it’s totally amazing.”

Overall, the Smiths have made over 4,500 Olliebots and have raised more than $100,000.

“With Oliver losing his battle, you never want to see another kid go through what he has went through,” Megan says. “Just with the lack of fundraising and research for pediatric cancer, I think it’s important that we keep up his legacy.

“I think Oliver would be really honoured to know that we carried on his legacy and that there’s still hope for other children.”

Something Oliver would always say is, “Be the hardest worker.” It’s a motto the Smith family used throughout Oliver’s life and after his death. With Olliebots tucked into their suitcases for the Esso Cup, Megan and the Selects plan to embody that motto on the ice in Okotoks.

“Whenever I play, I try to be the hardest worker and it brings me so much joy to be able to do that and honour his legacy,” she says. “Everyone on my team knows the ‘Be the hardest worker,’ and we truly live by it. We are the hardest workers in practice, off ice, during games. We live by it, and it means so much that the girls support me and my family.”

Fraser Valley Rush 5, Northern Selects 4 (SO) 

• Game stats available here 

Durham West Lightning 9, Remparts du Richelieu 3

• Game stats available here

Notre Dame Hounds 4, Prince Albert Bears 2  

• Game stats available here

Next games - Friday, May 20: 

• Fraser Valley Rush vs. Durham West Lightning (12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT) 
• Notre Dame Hounds vs. Remparts du Richelieu (3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT) 
• Prince Albert Bears vs. Northern Selects (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) 

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22; please check local listings for details. All preliminary-round games and the semifinals will be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup.

Quotes: 

“We left it all out there today and earned this win. I’m proud of this group and what we’ve been able to accomplish. We didn’t even know if we would win our province and here we are now. We’ve got one more tomorrow and we’re not done yet.”

- Vienna Rubin (Fraser Valley Rush) on the shootout victory on Thursday

“This is the best hockey we’ve played all season. We came here to compete and win. The competition here is tough, but we need to keep doing what we have been doing to be successful.”

- Sadie Hotles (Durham West Lightning) on the Lightning mindset heading into Friday 

“To get the win here tonight feels great. We’ve been working hard but haven’t been rewarded. To beat our rivals from Saskatchewan makes it even sweeter. The pressure is on us now heading into the last day. I think this team is built for this moment and I know we will push forward.”

- Ryann Perrett (Notre Dame Hounds) on Hounds’ first regulation victory

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Northern Selects 6, Remparts du Richelieu 2

• Game stats available here 

Prince Albert Bears 6, Fraser Valley Rush 5

• Game stats available here

Durham West Lightning 4, Notre Dame Hounds 3

• Game stats available here

Next games - Thursday, May 19: 

• Northern Selects vs. Fraser Valley Rush (12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT) 
• Remparts du Richelieu vs. Durham West Lightning (3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT) 
• Prince Albert Bears vs. Notre Dame Hounds (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) 

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22; please check local listings for details. All preliminary-round games and the semifinals will be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup.

Quotes: 

“We have a tired group for sure. We knew today was going to be a grind and it was. We’ve been in tight games all week and we knew we needed to elevate our game to the next level, today we did that, and it helped get us the win.”

- Sara Stewart (Northern Selects) on playing with a short bench due to injuries.  

“It doesn’t matter how we got here and now we’re in it just like everyone else. The girls in that room are hungry and we came here to win. We can’t soak this in for too long, we have to get right back to work here and finish the right way.”

- Sophia Zuck (Prince Albert Bears) on the Bears’ mindset after back-to-back victories. 

“As a group we are happy with the win tonight. This was a hard-fought, tight game and we played well. We are a confident group right now and the mood is high heading into tomorrow.”

- Zoe Ziotas (Durham West Lightning) on the confidence in the Lightning locker room.

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Durham West Lightning 3, Northern Selects 1  

• Game stats available here 

Prince Albert Bears 9, Remparts du Richelieu 4

• Game stats available here

Fraser Valley Rush 2, Notre Dame Hounds 0

• Game stats available here

Next games - Wednesday, May 18 (All games at Scott Seaman Sports Rink): 

• Northern Selects vs. Remparts du Richelieu(12 p.m. ET/9 a.m. PT)
• Fraser Valley Rush vs. Prince Albert Bears (4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT)
• Notre Dame Hounds vs. Durham West Lightning (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT) 

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22; please check local listings for details. All preliminary-round games and the semifinals will be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup.

Quotes: 

“We had to deal with some adversity today. The Selects are highly ranked, and they showed it. Our girls had to deal with some adversity and learn how to fight through it. It was a big confidence boost to finish off the game the way we did.”

- Durham head coach Patrick Teggart on his team bearing down and remaining undefeated  

“We have a happy room right now. This was a long time coming, and a great feeling to pick up the win. We’ve said all year that we can’t get too high or low and today we showed that.”

- Brooklin Fry (Prince Albert Bears) on her team picking up its first win of the tournament 

“We played a heavy game tonight, and it was really intense. Our team likes to play that way, we wanted to compete hard against a big Notre Dame team and we did that tonight.”

- Aynsley D’Ottavio (Fraser Valley Rush) on a 2-0 win over Notre Dame

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

When Aynsley D’Ottavio left her home in Chilliwack, B.C., to tour Quinnipac University in November, she never imagined how difficult it would be to get back home.

The Fraser Valley Rush defenceman and her mother made the trip to Connecticut with the intent of touring the university for one day before returning home.

“We got in [to Connecticut] that night and my dad texted my mom and said that a storm was going on [back home],” D’Ottavio says. “It didn’t really affect us too much because we do live in B.C. and there’s a lot of rain.”

Not thinking much of the precipitation, they went to sleep after the long travel day in preparation for the tour in the morning. The next day, they continued to receive updates about the unprecedented amount of rain they were getting back home.

“I toured the school all day, and kind of was hearing about everything as the day went on,” D’Ottavio says. “And then flying home that night, [that’s when we] found out that it got really bad.”

A historic rainstorm brought some B.C. communities nearly a month’s worth of rain within the span of 48 hours. The storm broke dozens of rainfall records and caused devastating landslides that closed almost every major highway in southern B.C.

After an already rain-filled September and October in the Fraser Valley, the latest dump overwhelmed creeks and rivers that wouldn’t normally be flood risks. Entire regions of the Fraser Valley became ingulfed by floodwaters. About 20,000 people were forced to flee their homes due to the storm.

The original plan was for D’Ottavio’s father to pick her and her mother up at the airport to drive the 16-year-old to Langley so she could join the Rush to face the Northern Capitals. While laid over in Toronto, D’Ottavio found out that the storm ruined that plan.

“We were kind of at a loss as to what to do because my dad couldn’t get through the flooding to pick us up,” she says. “We got into Vancouver, and my mom’s boss generously got us a hotel in Vancouver. We stayed there for a night and just kind of assessed the situation.”

D’Ottavio was not the only member of the Rush that was impacted by the floods. Forward Hannah Dods was at home in Chilliwack when the storm began. At first, the 15-year-old didn’t think too much about the incoming storm, but hearing about the beginning of the flooding and the height of the water in the rivers grabbed her attention.

“The night before I remember I was with my friend and we were talking about how much it was raining and we’re like, ‘Do you think school might be closed?’ But we were completely doubting it,” she says. “The next thing you know, school’s closed.”

Thankfully, both Dods and D’Ottavio’s family homes were not affected by the flooding in Chilliwack. Dods’ school would end up staying closed for an entire week and became a refuge for people affected by the flooding. Although Dods’ home was unaffected, she did witness the effects of her hometown being cut off by the natural disaster.

“Literally any kind of resources you would usually get, we’re not getting fed with any new supplies or anything,” she says. “We can’t waste the fuel we have because we can’t get more. We can’t eat all our groceries because if we go to the store, there’s no groceries because no supplies are getting in and out of Chilliwack.”

With the highways blocked by debris and water, there was no way for Dods to get to Rush practices or games. It did offer a silver lining, though—the 15-year-old was able to participate more on her basketball team.

“It was good to have chill time, but probably the one thing that disappointed me the most was definitely missing out on my hockey,” Dods says. “I think I missed a game and a couple practices, and not seeing my teammates for a week was like, ‘I can’t wait to get back out there.’”

Back in Vancouver, D’Ottavio was making calls to her teammates to see what she could do for their upcoming games against the Capitals.

“We had a game the next day in the morning, so we got a hold of some teammates and kind of just saw if we could put together a ride to even watch the game,” D’Ottavio explains.

With plans underway to try to get herself to Langley, she thought of an idea. Many of her teammates have old hockey gear in their homes. If she was unable to have her own equipment with her due to the flooding, what if her teammates could piece together a set for her?

“It was great,” she says. “I brought up the idea of getting some gear and everybody was just so on board with it and really wanted to see me on the ice, which was great because I really wanted to be on the ice and play with everybody. It was really awesome.”

Decked out in a set of hockey gear cobbled together from several teammates, the practicality of the idea hit when she stepped out on the ice.

“It was so awkward, and it was so weird,” D’Ottavio says. “Skating at first, I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it. Different skates are so tough to get used to just to begin with, but ones that are already broken in and old skates, it was so tough.”

Despite the discomfort, she recorded an assist in the Rush’s 3-2 overtime win. With the game complete, the next challenge was how to return home. D’Ottavio and her mother joined her defence partner Jade Lore and Lore’s mother to see if they could find a way home without using the closed roads.

Their first thought was to drive to Pitt Meadows Airport, a regional airport about 32 kilometres from Vancouver International Airport, to see if they could find a small plane that could fly them home, but there was no availability.

“We didn’t even have it in mind, but we saw the helicopter service across the street and asked them if they had any availability,” she says. “It turned out that somebody had cancelled, or they just had room and they were generous enough to give us a ride.”

In her first helicopter ride, D’Ottavio had a birds-eye view to see devastating flooding in her community first-hand.

“It was crazy. I couldn’t even recognize roads. There’s a highway that cuts right through, we couldn’t even make out where the highway was. It was worse than I would have imagined,” she says.

Although the circumstances surrounding the historic storm were difficult, the generosity of those willing to help in the community was always present. Several hockey associations in surrounding areas helped those affected by the natural disaster. Dods says her family assisted with filling up sandbags at a nearby park.

“It felt cool seeing all these people coming together,” Dods says.

D’Ottavio is thankful for all the generous acts that helped her and her mother return home. As the city worked to repair the damages, she remembers the positivity the community had for those most affected.

“Everybody was rallying around the farmers and the people living in the floodplains that were affected and had to leave their homes,” D’Ottavio adds. “The pilot told us that a bunch of plane and helicopter services were giving people free rides across the water to get them home to their families or people that had just left for work in the morning and just couldn’t get home. It was really awesome to see.”

Although lots of the infrastructure damaged by the storm has been repaired, there are still signs of the flooding six months later. Once the roads in and out of town re-opened, D’Ottavio and Dods were happy to be back with the Rush on their road to the Esso Cup.

Durham West Lightning 6, Prince Albert Bears 2

• Game stats available here

Notre Dame Hounds 2, Northern Selects 1 (OT)

• Game stats available here

Fraser Valley Rush 4, Remparts du Richelieu 1

• Game stats available here

Next games - Tuesday, May 17:

• Durham West Lightning vs. Northern Selects (1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT)
• Prince Albert Bears vs. Remparts du Richelieu (5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT)
• Fraser Valley Rush vs. Notre Dame Hounds (8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT)

TSN and RDS, the official broadcast partners of Hockey Canada, will broadcast the championship game on May 22; please check local listings for details. All preliminary-round games and the semifinals will be livestreamed at HockeyCanada.ca/EssoCup.

Quotes:

“We have carried a ton of energy with us all season, and we brought it here again today. It was a long journey to get here, but to open this tournament with a victory is huge and gets the experience off on the right foot. It felt nice to score today, but the win is more important.”

- Jessica Pellerin (Durham West Lightning) on her two-goal performance and a tournament-opening victory.

“The first period was a bit scrambly for sure, but we’ve been practicing hard for the last three weeks and knew this was going to be a challenge. We had some nerves late, but to get this win in front of all our family and friends is a great start to the week.”

- Kaitlyn Gilroy (Notre Dame Hounds) on returning to game action after a long layoff.

“This was a heavy game tonight. Everyone was pulling in the right direction, worked well together, and picked up the win. This was a great way to start off this tournament.”

- Katie Leroux (Fraser Valley Rush) on a hard-fought victory over Richelieu.

For more information on the 2022 Esso Cup, please visit HockeyCanada.ca or follow along via social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.