Defending-champion Lakeland victorious in its season-opener
With a new championship banner hanging in the backdrop, the Lakeland Rustlers raised their game accordingly and opened their women’s college hockey season in victorious fashion at home last Friday night.
Read more: Lloydminster Co-op champions Rustlers women’s hockey with $100K
Lakeland defeated the Red Deer Queens 2-1 in the first regular-season female game played at the brand-new Cenovus Energy Hub. More than 600 fans packed the Co-op Community Arena, now the Rustlers’ home base.
After hosting a pre-game barbecue in the parking lot, Lakeland kept cooking on the ice to open defence of its Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) championship.
“It was honestly the most-packed barn we’ve had, so it was really exciting for us,” said Rustlers third-year forward Keyra Buziak, who knows her way around those other barns, too, from her North Battleford farm roots and her ag-business and crop-technology studies at Lakeland College’s Vermilion campus.
Opening nights are always a special occasion, but especially so when it doubles as a banner-raising game in an events centre of the Hub’s calibre.
The community arena is the secondary facility in the two-rink Hub complex, but the Rustlers didn’t take a backseat to anyone in their inaugural game.
Buziak was one of those Rustlers at the head of the class all night. After being stopped on a penalty shot in the first minute of the second period, she gained redemption halfway through the game and scored the historic first official ACAC goal in the Hub.
“That was really exciting for me and for my line,” said Buziak, 20. “Me and Calla Kampen, we play together a lot, so her finding me in the slot (was fitting). I didn’t really have much room, no time to think, and I kind of just split the D. They ended up poking it away from me, and I really had nothing (else) to do but poke it back. I jumped for it and put it in.”
Earlier denied on the penalty shot, Buziak gave credit to Red Deer goaltender Tora Ward for reading the shooter well.
“I played with this goalie in midget and she knows my playbook,” Buziak said. “I tried to switch it up. I thought I had her on the five-hole, and at the last second, I totally missed the puck, and it just went in the corner. I was pretty disappointed, but glad I got one back later in the game.”
Olivia Mann scored what proved to be the winning goal when she connected on the power play seven minutes into the third period. Amiyah Jones assisted on both Lakeland tallies.
Rustlers goaltender Schay Camphaug came within 32 seconds of posting a shutout in her ACAC debut. But, after a timeout, Mia McGregor scored for the Queens as part of the frantic finish.
Camphaug and her Red Deer counterpart, Ward, each made 25 saves.
Camphaug is one of the Rustlers’ three rookie goalies, along with Paige Fischer and Shelbi Thunderblanket.
“We’ve got a whole new lineup of goalies and they’re all really good,” Buziak said. “That was the first game, regular season, for (Camphaug) and I was so excited for her. She played great.”
Lakeland goaltender Schay Camphaug and Amiya Jones (right) flank Red Deer’s Rylee Mepham in ACAC action Friday at the Cenovus Energy Hub. John MacNeil – Meridian Source
WELL-SCHOOLED RECRUIT
Camphaug, 19, was worth the wait for the Rustlers. She tested U.S. college hockey waters last year at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
Lakeland coach Morgan Mann had been scouting Camphaug since she played at Notre Dame College prep school in her native Saskatchewan.
“She’s a Moose Jaw farm girl and just in the last year moved out to Salmon Arm (in British Columbia),” coach Mann said. “We tried hard to recruit her coming out of high school, in her Grade 12 year, but she chose to go down south to Pennsylvania. And it just didn’t work out down there, so we were happy to convince her to come this way.
“She has played for Team Sask. She’s an elite goalie. She sure had a good game tonight.”
The Rustlers plan to carry three goalies for the entire season. While young between the pipes, Lakeland’s 25-player roster includes 18 skaters from their conference championship team.
That experience showed in the tight going during Friday’s season-opener, notably when the Rustlers killed off back-to-back five-on-three disadvantages in the middle period.
“We really do have some balance,” Mann said. “We have some offensive players that maybe get more opportunity on the power play, and we have some penalty-kill specialists that often will start games, like the line of (Asha) Petrie, (Ella) Wingert and (Kylie) Perry. They skate and they cause turnovers and disrupt the flow of the other team. So, to have those players killing penalties, it’s momentum-changing when you can stop a team from getting (a power-play goal).”
Likewise, the festive opening-night atmosphere brought life to the building and the Rustlers, who continue to make inroads at the collegiate level and in the progression of women’s hockey.
“Really pleased with our crowd,” said Mann, a Lloydminster educator. “That was our luxury we had at our old rink, the Russ Robertson. It wasn’t very big, so you could pack them in, and that makes for a nice atmosphere.
“We really appreciated the support we got tonight. It was a tight game, back and forth. It wasn’t easy.”
The Rustlers are used to the heavy lifting. For example, two of them (Buziak and Brooklyn Salewski) head to Vermilion each school day after early morning practices in Lloyd.
“I just absolutely love it here,” said Buziak, following her older brothers in hockey and her family in agricultural circles.
“My family farms. My auntie is an agronomist. I always wanted to be a part of that. Lakeland just gave me the great opportunity to do both — my hockey and study agriculture.
“Morgan is so good at recruiting that as soon as I got on the team, I fit in so well with everyone. Every year, I see the same thing. We’re such a tight group. We always have been, and we always will be, because the recruiting is just so good.”
Rustlers’ recruiting and engagement extends even beyond the ACAC team and into the community. As evidenced last Friday, they’ve attracted young fans, fuelling the future of the female game. Minor hockey girls were guests in the dressing room immediately after the Lakeland victory.
“We normally do that,” Buziak said. “We have minor hockey teams come in, some girls’ teams that really look up to us. We like to invite them in to see what can potentially be theirs one day.
“We take a lot of time talking to them and showing them around. We do a lot of mentorship with the youth of Lloydminster female hockey. We like to have them in every now and then and say hi.
“It’s so exciting for us and all the little girls. A lot of them have been in our (dressing) room in the old rink, but now they come in the new room and they’re just wowed out by how nice it is in there, so that’s really cool to see.”
HOME-COOKING ON AND OFF THE ICE
Local players are prominent on Lakeland’s roster, which this year has welcomed Lloydminster’s Ryann Rekimowich and Mannville’s Ashlyn Hinton from the U18 AAA Steelers team that hosted the Esso Cup national championship last spring at the Centennial Civic Centre.
The interaction with kids and the greater community began even before Friday’s game as Lakeland players engaged in fun activities and greeted guests at the barbecue. It was a celebratory day as the Rustlers introduced their new title sponsor, Lloydminster and District Co-op.
The Rustlers went right back to work on Saturday in Edmonton. They fired 67 shots at NAIT goaltender Jorja Imrie, but lost 4-1 to the Ooks.
Lakeland goalie Fischer made 28 saves.
Addison Eurich scored the Rustlers’ lone goal in the first period.
NAIT came back with three goals in the second and an empty-netter in the third.
Allison McGregor sparked NAIT with a goal and an assist. Madison McCullough, on the power play, Alyssa Tremblay-Houl and Abby Robar also tallied for the Ooks (1-1).
In its home-opener Saturday, Red Deer defeated Medicine Hat 4-3 in the Rattlers’ first game of the season.
Lakeland’s next action is a three-game Hub homestand against the unbeaten Olds Broncos (2-0) on the Oct. 17-19 weekend.
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