Joey Payeur
It was the most awkward of injuries and the most frightening of moments.
Katie Sinclair initially thought her hockey season was over. Now that it’s not, she has every intention of making her second chance count.
The Fort Frances native will be back in the Lakehead Thunderwolves’ lineup as the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division 2 women’s national championship gets underway today in Columbus, Ohio.
It’s an event Sinclair is quite familiar with–having been part of the Rainy River Community College Voyageurs’ squad that finished third two years ago at the nationals before claiming silver last year after a heart-breaking 2-1 loss to the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in double overtime in the final.
But for a while on Feb. 11, during Lakehead’s 6-0 win over the host University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Eagles, Sinclair wasn’t sure she would lace up the blades again this season after an unfortunate incident.
“I beat their defenceman to the puck but instead of letting me beat her, she pushed me into the boards,” said the rookie on the Thunderwolves, who this season became the first Canadian team to join the ACHA.
“I hit the boards really hard, and my left knee hit the boards and bounced back into my right knee,” she recalled.
“I thought I had broke it at first.”
Sinclair ended up with her bones intact, but a large gash along the width of her right leg.
“The strange part was it didn’t bleed out,” she noted.
“I was relieved when I saw the cut,” she added. “It was the best scenario that could have happened.”
Sinclair was rushed to the hospital in La Crosse, where she was told she should be able to walk on the injured leg in a couple of days.
She tried that but found out that was not the best advice.
“Monday, I couldn’t bend my leg,” Sinclair recounted.
“I [then] went to see a doctor in Fort Frances and he let me know I had ligament damage, which was why I couldn’t walk.
“That would have been good to know ahead of time that I wasn’t supposed to be walking on it at all,” she stressed.
Sinclair was on crutches for a week but at the urging of her dad, Duane, she put them away and suited up two weeks later for the Chiefs’ senior women’s hockey team at their home tournament at “The Duke” (Couchiching Arena).
“At first, it felt OK but after a bit, I had to glide and push off on the atrophied muscles to get around,” she said.
“It was throbbing but Dad said if it’s not hurting, I’m not trying hard enough,” she added.
“I wanted to push through it. I wanted to play.”
The Thunderwolves went through adjustments in their first two weekends of ACHA play, getting swept by the Northern Michigan University Wildcats in a two-game series and then losing its first of two against the North Dakota State University Bison.
“It was a rough start,” conceded Sinclair, a forward who finished the ACHA season with nine points in 15 games.
“We didn’t mesh well as a team.
But the second game against the Bison proved to be pivotal to not only that weekend but the rest of the season.
The Thunderwolves held on for a 1-0 victory back on Oct. 30 to get their first notch in the win column–a feeling so good, they haven’t stopped feeling it since.
The result is a current 15-game undefeated run to finish the ACHA season at 15-3, a streak that included an eyebrow-raising sweep of defending champion UMD there Jan. 28-29.
That has Lakehead entering the nationals as the top-ranked team out of the West region.
“As the season wore on, we made progress,” Sinclair said.
“One of the girls made the point recently of how far we have come as a team,” she noted. “Everyone stuck together.
“I started to mesh with the Thunder Bay girls, whom I had never played with before, which made it hard at first,” Sinclair admitted.
“[But] I also know Liv Carter and we play well together. We really play the same style of game,” the former Muskie added about her Dryden Eagles’ rival from their NorWOSSA playing days.
The ACHA nationals will run under a new format this season, with the field increasing from eight teams to 12 (six each from the East and West regions) being split into four pools of three.
There is no room for error as only the winners in each of the four pools advance to the semi-finals, so a single loss could mean missing the medal round.
The Thunderwolves are joined in Pool ‘A’ by the East’s fourth-ranked Navy Midshipmen (13-5) and the Aquinas Saints (11-14-3) out of Grand Rapids, Mich., normally a West region team but one that was shifted to be the East’s sixth seed after three other teams declined their invitation to the nationals.
“I don’t like the change to 12 teams,” said Sinclair.
“It worked well the way it was so I don’t know why they changed it.”
The Thunderwolves had today off before playing the Saints tomorrow at 5 p.m. and then the Midshipmen on Friday at 5 p.m. (all times CDT).
The semi-finals will take place on Saturday, with the Pool ‘A’ winner playing Pool ‘D.’
That could mean Sinclair getting her shot at revenge against UMD (the fifth seed in the West) for last year or facing another bitter rival from her RRCC days in NDSU (third seed in the West).
The Boston College Eagles also are in Pool ‘D’ as the second seed from the East, although that region has been significantly below the West in terms of overall talent level in recent years.
“I’m hoping for gold,” said Sinclair. “We have a strong team and I think we have the opportunity to follow through.
“We’re a very offensive-minded club [nearly 100 goals in 18 games] that cycles the puck well and has our defence get lots of points,” she noted.
“We’ve also got [goalie] Megan Joseph-Seeley and we trust her back there,” added Sinclair, referring to the Thunderwolves’ No. 1 option between the pipes.
“We know we have someone to stop the puck reliably if we need her to and that makes our job easier,” she reasoned.
