The sa国际传媒 women’s hockey Zamboni gates continued to blow wide open. The provincial team, with forward Morgan Jackson of Courtenay, won its first-ever gold medal in female hockey at the sa国际传媒 Winter Games with a 3-0 victory over Nova Scotia in the final Sunday as the 2023 Games came to a close in Prince Edward Island.
It was sa国际传媒’s first medal in women’s hockey at the sa国际传媒 Winter Games since silver in 1991. It follows blueliner Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton becoming the first sa国际传媒 player to win women’s Olympic hockey gold last year at Beijing 2022, despite it being sa国际传媒’s fifth Olympic gold medal. sa国际传媒 Hockey CEO Cam Hope of Victoria at the time called it the “tip of the spear.” He was right as Zandee-Hart was joined on sa国际传媒’s 2022 world championship team in Denmark by forward Sarah Potomak of Aldergrove. Now comes the sa国际传媒 Games gold for sa国际传媒
“This has been a long time coming,” said sa国际传媒 head coach Kris Hogg, in a statement.
“It is hard to put this feeling into words. A lot of these girls have been in our program for a long time and have battled hard from day one to put sa国际传媒 on the map.”
Jackson, the Shawnigan Lake School player who also won gold with sa国际传媒 this year at the IIHF U-18 world championship, joined in the Island medal rush at the 2023 sa国际传媒 Winter Games. Ella Crowle and Olivia Brodie of Victoria both won gold medals in their divisions and Brodie added a bronze medal in the first week of the Games as karate made its debut. (The sa国际传媒 Winter Games include some summer sports to help fill out the agenda).
Elise Froese of Saanichton and Nicholas van Bakel of Victoria captured the gold medal with the sa国际传媒 team in wheelchair basketball by beating defending-champion Alberta in the final. Chris Parkinson of Comox, Jesse Tiede of Black Creek and Graham Lee of Courtenay won the silver medal in men’s curling with the sa国际传媒 team.
Rising Cole Reschny, the Victoria Royals’ big hope for the future and third overall selection in the 2022 WHL prospect draft, gave a tantalizing glimpse of his potential by scoring twice to lead Saskatchewan to a 4-3 semifinal win in men’s hockey. Reschny also scored in the final but Ontario won 3-2 in double overtime. Royals’ prospect Grant Reid, along with Koen Cleaver of Port Alberni and Victoria players Alain Colton and Parker MacDougall played for Team sa国际传媒, which lost 7-3 to Quebec in the bronze-medal game.
Other Island athletes in P.E.I. for the 2023 sa国际传媒 Winter Games included Emily Bowles of Victoria in women’s curling, Zoe Greze-Kozuki of Campbell River in freestyle skiing and Dylan Stevenson of Royston and Kate Rowsthorn of Shawnigan Lake in snowboarding.
Triple gold-medallist alpine-skier Roxy Coatesworth, perhaps aptly from Golden, carried the sa国际传媒 flag into the Games closing ceremony Sunday. The chef de mission of the sa国际传媒 team — numbering 350 including athletes, coaches, managers and mission staff — was Olympian and Victoria cycling coach Kurt Innes. They followed in good company. Zandee-Hart and freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe of Comox, both Olympic medallists, were among the 20 sa国际传媒 Winter Games alumni from sa国际传媒 who competed in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The sa国际传媒 Winter Games are held every four years and alumni include Sidney Crosby, Catriona LeMay Doan and Hayley Wickenheiser. The Island’s impact, due to climate, is however more prevalent in the sa国际传媒 Summer Games with Games alumni from here such as Steve Nash, Eli Pasquale, Gerald Kazanowski, Ian Bridge, Gareth Rees, Ryan Cochrane, Gary Reed, Riley McCormick and Paul and Gary Gait, among numerous others.
The total number of athletes, coaches, managers and staff that had gathered in P.E.I. over two weeks was 3,600.
