They didn’t figure in their team’s scoring, but two of the province’s finest young hockey players hope they showed Canada’s coaching staffs enough to keep them in the mix for national team roster spots.
Maggie Connors of St. John’s and Shailynn Snow of Clarke’s Beach just finished a pair of three-game exhibition series’ with the United States in Calgary.
Connors, who won a bronze medal with the national under-18 team at the world championship in Russia last January, skated for the national women’s development team, while Snow, who is heading back to Ridley College prep school in St. Catharines, Ont. for a third season, toiled for the Canadian under-18 team.
The development squad lost all three games to the U.S., 2-1 Sunday, 3-1 last Friday and 4-1 last Thursday, while the U18s took two of three games from the Americans, topped with a 5-4 overtime win Sunday. The Canadians won 4-3 Friday following a 2-1 loss Thursday.
Part of Hockey Canada’s Summer Showcase, the trio of games involving the development team allowed coaches and management to get a glance at players who could be part of the national team program which will soon begin a new Olympic cycle leading up to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
As for the U18s, it was the first step in the process to icing a team at the 2019 world U18 women’s championship Jan. 6-13 in Japan.
Over the next couple of months, Hockey Canada director of women’s national teams, Gina Kingsbury, and head scout Mel Davidson will continue to assess players with their club teams throughout the first part of the 2018-19 season.
For Connors, that means Princeton University where she is set to begin her NCAA DI college career in the fall. Connors heads to the Ivy League school in New Jersey following five years at Shattuck-St. Mary’s prep in Faribault Minn.
Connors, 17, won a couple of national championships at Shattuck, including the U19 U.S. championship last season, when she finished second in team scoring.
“I loved it at Shattuck, and I loved my five years there,” she said, “but I’m so excited to be heading to Princeton.
“I’m ready for a change. To move up a level playing against, and practising with, players who are older and better than me will make me a better player, I think.”
Having toiled for the U18 national squad last season, this latest Hockey Canada experience was nothing new to Connors. Skating with and against older and more seasoned future Olympians was different, however.
“The whole experience was amazing … unbelievable,” she said. “You’re learning from these players in every aspect of the game, both on and off the ice.
“When you’re playing U18 and prep, to all of a sudden go to U22, it took a few skates to get a feel for the pace. Once I did, I realized I could play at that level.”
Because she has a late birthday — she turns 18 in October — Connors is too old for the U18 squad. But she will have a number of years to skate for Canada’s under-22 squad in the women’s Nations Cup.
It was Snow’s first foray with Hockey Canada after two years of prep school hockey.
Snow, who turned 17 in June, is headed back to Ridley College, but will play NCAA hockey with St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y. starting in 2019.
Snow appeared in two of Canada’s three games against the Americans.
