Puck stops here for local women’s hockey player

For Heather Ash, moving to another city to play hockey was an easy decision to make.
And after helping backstop the Thunder Bay “AA” Queens regional team to a second-place finish at a four-team tournament in Minneapolis recently, it looks to be one that could bode well for her future hockey endeavours.
Allowing just two goals in two games (including a 7-0 shutout over a Chicago squad), the 16-year-old Fort Frances native seems to have made the transition to “AA” hockey a simple one.
Ash survived a pair weekend tryouts back in August which pared down an original list of 35 hopefuls to just 19 players (including two goalies). In fact, she and a player from Schreiber are the only ones who don’t hail from Thunder Bay.
Although Ash said the team plans to give both goalies equal ice time during home games, and rotate each one at tournaments, the coaches have elected to play the “hot” goalie if the team advances to the final.
And if Ash continues to play as well as she did in her first tournament, she may very well be the goalie that gets the call in big games.
A product of the local women’s hockey league (entering just its fourth season of operation here), the 5’7” goalie played for the Oddfellows Bantam house league team here last season. But she made it her goal of making the Thunder Bay squad this season.
Ash credited the fact she has attended the International Goaltenders School in Thunder Bay on a yearly basis as contributing to her success between the pipes.
“I’ve been going to the school for the last four years and it’s really helped me a lot because they teach you a lot of styles and techniques,” said Ash, who began playing hockey when she was eight.
And she has seen double duty in recent years playing with both local boys’ teams and the girls’ program here.
“Oh yeah, for sure,” said Ash when asked if there was a difference between playing against boys and girls. “The guys are a lot quicker and they shoot harder, which made me a better goalie because now with the girls, I can anticipate the puck a lot easier because they are slower with [it].
“The girls also don’t take as many shots from the point. They like to deke more and take shots from close inside,” she noted. “But there’s also a big difference from the girls’ game here than [at the ‘AA’ level].
“The tournament was a lot rougher than most of the girls’ games, and I had to contend with girls crashing and banging to the net,” she added.
Another difference between the two levels is ice time. While the girls’ program here struggles to get an hour of ice time each week, the Thunder Bay team plays at least one game a week and practices every other day to hone its skills.
It also has at least one tournament a month scheduled, including one in a few weeks in St. Paul, Mn.
The busy schedule has Ash juggling school and hockey but she said it’s a routine she doesn’t mind one bit.
“I’m finding that I don’t have much time for anything except school and hockey,” she said last Saturday while home for the weekend for the first time since moving to Thunder Bay. “I miss everyone back home but I think it’s worth it.”
Perhaps what impressed Ash most about the tournament in Minneapolis was the variety of teams it attracted, including one from Aspen, Col., Chicago, and the host one.
The team’s only to losses came against St. Mary’s (Minneapolis) by a 5-1 score in the round-robin portion and then 4-1 in the final.
“It was pretty neat to play those teams, which came mostly from private schools, and girls who go to play there from places like Florida and Alaska,” said Ash.
And that’s along the same lines as to what Ash would like to do after she completes her two-year stint with the Midget team after next season.
As women’s hockey continues to make great strides on an international level so, too, do the opportunities for more Canadian girls to earn college hockey scholarships in the U.S.
“It’s pretty much my goal to shoot for a chance to play college in the States, and if I ever get a chance to tryout at the national level, that would be something,” said Ash.