It isn’t the ending Alex Poznikoff was looking for in her Cinderella comeback story of the season.
In fact, there will be no final chapter at all for the University of Alberta Pandas hockey star, who was leading the Canada West Conference in scoring before a broken leg interrupted her fifth and final season of eligibility.
Defying all odds through the recovery process, Poznikoff rejoined her teammates in time for the playoffs, where they won the Canada West championship on the way to being named the top seed coming into nationals in Charlottetown, P.E.I., this week.
But on the eve of their opening game, Poznikoff and the Pandas would suffer another setback.
And it was her heart that got broken this time around.
The U-Sports women’s hockey championships that got underway Thursday ended up, for the first time every, getting cancelled later that evening, along with the men’s tournament in Halifax and the women’s and men’s volleyball nationals in Calgary and Winnipeg, due to concerns over COVID-19.
“Last night, around 9 or 9:30, we were all in bed because, obviously, we were going to play today,” Poznikoff said in a phone interview with Postmedia on Friday. “There were different rumours, and then we got the text for a team meeting and we kind of knew then. Everyone was in their pajamas already, so we all wandered down.
“It felt kind of dark, and very sad.”
Not to mention sudden.
And empty.
But mostly just wholly incomplete.
“It was gut-wrenching,” Poznikoff said. “It’s hard to believe that yesterday was basically my last practice as a Panda, officially.
“Nobody really expected it, I guess there was talk about it but for it to actually happen, we’re all still kind of in disbelief.”
After all, what safer place in the country could there be than, literally, on an island in a province where there had been no reported cases of coronavirus?
“That’s what we said: We’re already here, we’ve had banquets, we’ve seen our families, we’re all in this area already, and since it started, we figured they’re probably just going to keep going. It’s three more days,” Poznikoff said. “We were feeling pretty confident, but once the NHL stopped, we were thinking we might be in trouble.”
•••
Coming off the Christmas break, Poznikoff was at the top of her game, not to mention the stats page, on pace to beat the numbers that saw her finish as the conference leader in goals, assists and, of course, points a year ago.
Soon, the only number she was interested in was recovery time.
“It was kind of an unexpected event, I ended up breaking my leg in that first weekend back against Sask.,” Poznikoff recalled. “I ended up getting surgery and trying to rehab to get back to this point.”
Medical staff gave her a five per-cent chance to make it back in time for playoffs, which turned out not to be until the conference semifinal round, after the Pandas secured a first-place bye in her absence.
They won eight of their last 10 games to earn her the extra time.
“It was so amazing to see, I’d watch every game and you could just tell there was that little extra fire under everyone’s skates there,” Poznikoff said. “They were really fighting for me.
“I ended up getting back for semis, which was pretty shocking. I was pretty excited about that.”
The excitement, the comeback, a chance for the first-place Pandas to redeem themselves with a gold medal after falling short of the podium – and all expectations – in the same venue at last year’s nationals, ended up being all for naught with Thursday night’s cancellation.
“It’s kind of hard to believe still,” said Poznikoff, whose last long shot at this point has been to join a protest begun by student athletes in their final year of eligibility to return for a sixth season. “It’s just done. Out of your control. It’s not a win or a loss, you just can’t play, so it’s pretty crazy.”
As is the underlying factor behind the decision not only to cancel U-Sports tournaments, but most other events across the country and beyond.
“I’m very conflicted, I know it spreads like wildfire and I know based on the response, we need to be careful and this is something serious going on,” she said. “But we were all here anyway and if we were spreading it, we were spreading it.
“All the teams are pretty devastated. It’s weird to say, but it looked like a funeral based on everyone’s faces when their teams got told. It’s weird to be a part of something like this in our day and age.”
•••
As the team sets to fly back to Edmonton on Sunday or Monday – before undergoing a quarantine for all their efforts, no doubt – Poznikoff isn’t exactly going away empty handed.
She learned a thing or two about herself on this interrupted journey.
“I really did,” said Poznikoff, who put in three to four hours of rehab a day since early January. “I learned that if you really put your mind to something, a lot is possible and that was just my goal ever since they said there was a five per-cent chance you’ll come back for semis.
“Through that process, the one thing I made sure I did was not get down on myself or angry or upset at why that happened. I just kind of tried to believe it was meant to be. So I kind of take that with a grain of salt and try to grow myself as a hockey player and an individual.”
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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