麻豆社区

A brand-new season of women's hockey began in the Yukon capital last night, with team Red besting team White 2-0 at the Canada Games Centre.

Rachael Cooper scored both goals on assists by Laura Grieve, and Alex Whitelaw picked up the shutout in her first game in the league.

The match officially kicked off the season for the ever-growing Whitehorse Women's Hockey Association, which has now swelled to seven teams.

The league has iced six teams for the last three seasons, but had to add another squad this year to keep up with growing numbers, said new president Joelle Hodgins.

League registration closed on Sept. 13, but because so many were interested, the league began time-stamping forms as of Sept. 3, she told the Star.

"We had planned to only have six teams, but we had prepared for the possibility that we'd have seven,鈥� Hodgins explained. "Last year, we had 16 players per team and many people said that was too many. We ordered a seventh set of jerseys 鈥� and decided to aim for 13 players per team.鈥�

Team Silver will be the seventh team in the league this season. Official team names have yet to be decided.

Hodgins said one concern with adding a new team was a lack of goalies, an issue the league has dealt with for many years. But no longer.

"We did put out a newspaper ad and told league members to look for goalie friends,鈥� Hodgins said. "That clearly worked because we actually had nine interested goalies. So there are two pairs of ladies that are sharing their season, and then five of the teams have one full-time goalie.

"Pretty amazing change considering we had about two or three full-time goalies last year and had to dip into a pool of beginner or male goalies from the rec or oldtimer leagues.鈥�

The league that began in 2005 is known for its fun-loving atmosphere and icing players of all skill-sets.

The ladies hit the ice early this year for two power skating camps hosted by local figure skating coach Trish Pettitt.

Both camps were "really successful,鈥� said Hodgins.

To encourage fair competition this season, the league moved to a draft system this year, mimicking the local oldtimers league.

As well, the organization is already planning for its annual jamboree tournament, which will be held in late November.

The weekend usually consists of four teams, but the league board is hoping to add more teams this year, and even hopes to lure a team from Dawson City.

The new board of directors includes: Hodgins (president), Vanessa Bogaert (vice-president), Kim Chapman (treasurer), Sarah Todd (secretary), Guin Lalena (registrar), and Carolyn Relf, Cheryl Rivest and Cynthia Desoto (directors).

For more on the league, visit http://whitehorsewomenshockey.com.