THE BEST ICE TEAM EVER?

Winnipeg Ice head coach Eugene Kaminsky doesn’t like to compare the teams he’s coached, but after this year’s provincial championship, he might have a favourite. Back on March 28, in Hartney, Man., the Ice got a goal from Haley Braun in overtime, while Jordyn Nepinak-Sargent recorded a 33-save shutout as the Ice defeated the defending champion Westman Wildcats, 1-0, to sweep the best-of-five Manitoba Female Hockey League U18 AAA championship series 3-0. With it, the Ice won Hockey Manitoba’s provincial AAA U18 championship banner, and earned a trip to the Western Regional playdowns against the Regina Rebels. “Without a doubt, that’s the best Ice team I’ve ever coached,” said Coach Kaminsky, who just wrapped up his 25th season as a head coach at the high school, prep and AAA levels. “I would also put it up there with one of the best prep teams I’ve had. It’s definitely one of the top 2 teams I’ve ever coached, that’s for sure. I may have had teams that were more individually skilled, but this is probably the best overall team I’ve coached.” Kaminsky had good reason to love his team. After finishing the 2022-23 regular season with a record of 22-5- 1, just one point back of the Wildcats, the Ice took out the Avros in three straight games and then beat the defending champion Wildcats in three straight games as well, by scores of 4-1, 1-0 and 1-0. In the final two games of the championship series, Braun scored both goals and Nepinak-Sargent made 52 saves to record two shutouts. ALL-AROUND GOOD TEAM “We had goal scorers, we had a great defence, it was a very good team all-around,” Kaminsky said. “And we had great goaltending. It was even better than I anticipated. It was good going in and it was even better coming out. “The nicest thing about coaching that team this year, although we did a lot of skill development and worked on team stuff, we were able to do some in-game coaching. We were able to match players together, to see who was working well with each other. We never had to fill any holes. All year we were able to make it work better than it already is and that is rare for a coach at this level. That was really nice.” Still, the loss to the Regina Rebels at the ESSO Cup Western Regional was a tough pill to swallow. After beating Westman to win the provincial title, the Ice lost to the Rebels 4-3 in double overtime and 5-4 in single overtime. “It’s frustrating to lose your last game,” he said. “Those two overtime losses are going to haunt a lot of us for a long time. We were an empty net goal away from being in the Esso Cup. Every year we have taken a step forward, this year we took a big step. With that being said, when I take a look at this Ice team, there has always been some progression in our game to get us to the next level, and then to the next level. To be honest, I hope that trend continues. “We talked about unfinished business in September, both as a coaching staff and as a team,” Kaminsky said. “We talked about the process. We talked about the fact you don’t win championships in October and November, so I asked them to be patient. ‘There are certain ways we want you guys to play, and everyone has to buy into that’ -- and they did. That was amazing. We realized that by the time we were moving into November, the coaching staff felt that this was a team that not only could win the provincial championship, but could go to the Esso Cup for sure. We felt we had the team to get us there. “I really thought we had the team that could do it. I also thought we left something on the table, but I was very proud of what the girls accomplished this year. That’s for sure.” THE FINAL WOULD BE A TOUGH ONE Kaminsky knew the provincial final would be a tough one. After all, he’s never had a lot of success winning in the Wildcats home rink. “The Westman, a team that is very well-coached, is a mirror image of us in many respects – strong goaltending, strong offensive threats, good defence, a hard-working team, fast. We were very much mirror images of each other. I know the first game we won 4-1 in Hartney is, ‘Here we go again.’ But this time, I knew we had a good team and we had some people who could put some pucks in the net, but then again, I also knew they had Grace Glover in goal and she was going to make it difficult for us. “That’s when Annika Russell came down the wing and just ripped a shot top-corner on Grace and I thought, ‘OK, if we’re getting goals like that, something good might happen.’ Because you don’t beat Grace cleanly and when we did, that was a positive sign. That’s when everything started to roll from there. “That’s another thing we preached to our team: ‘Just play the same way.’ Don’t worry about the score. We talked about the fact that we’re going to fall behind at times but if we’re consistent in our play, everything will work out and it did. Strong forechecking was the key for us, forcing defencemen into making mistakes. If they make mistakes, we’ll eventually capitalize. “When we got that win, it allowed our girls to realize that they had a legitimate shot at winning. I think that’s the first time they truly believed they could do something here. They knew they were good, but they never came across as an arrogant team. They knew they were good, but they always seemed to have an element of self-doubt. But when they got that first win, it really helped them.” QUALITY PLAYERS Kaminsky wasn’t particularly worried about his own team. After all, the Ice have five scholarship players heading off to university programs this fall: Eva Bergman is going to the University of Saskatchewan, Ella Maternick is going to MacEwan, Ali Staples is staying home to play for the University of Manitoba Bisons and Kianna Saillant is going to NCAA D-3 Arcadia University in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, the fifth member of the group, goalie Nepinak-Sargent has accepted an NCAA D-1 scholarship to Lake Superior State. “We struggled a bit in Game 2, but strong goaltending can take you a long way,” Kaminsky said. “Westman didn’t get too many second chances. Jordyn did a fantastic job of holding onto every rebound or pushing it into the corners so they didn’t get a rebound opportunity. That was huge for us. I’d never experienced a goaltending performance like that in any playoff I’ve been involved in. In eight games, Jordyn’s goals-against average was 0.74 and her save percentage was .973. It was incredible. “So, we won the last two games 1-0, one of them in overtime, and Haley Braun scored the only goals. Haley is one of those players you might not notice at times and then, all of a sudden, she’ll make something happen. The two goals were very similar. Opposite sides of the ice, but the same type of shot and both beat the goalie cleanly. “Not much more I can say about Haley. She had a fantastic year and is one of the best players I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach. “The last thing I said to the girls as we left was, ‘You are provincial champs and no matter what happens, no one can ever take that away from you.’ I was very proud of them.”