It took them a decade, but Slave Lake’s female hockey team has finally won a Northwest Alberta Female Hockey League championship. The Kodiaks put it all together in the championship game on Mar. 16, beating the perennial champion Hinton Wheelers 3 – 0.
“Now I can retire,” quipped long-time Kodiak Connie Schultz. “But I’m not going to.”
Schultz and her teammates have been trying for many years to find a way to beat the mighty Wheelers. They did it once – in a regular season game last year. But the Wheelers have always been unbeatable come playoff time and most of the rest of the time too. This time for some reason it was different.
“I think it had a lot to do with our team spirit,” says Schultz, her voice still hoarse from the celebrating on Tuesday morning. “We wanted it more.”
They had to play well too, and they did. Coach Chris Hatch says it started with goalie Christine Tanasiuk playing “incredible” in goal. It continued with solid defense and the formation of a forward line that clicked like never before. Of the 18 goals the team scored in the tournament, the line of Elisa Heukshorst, Ashley Kerr and Tammy Lukan scored 15 of them. Other players contributed in other ways.
“Everybody helped,” says Hatch.
The Kodiaks started the tournament with an 8 – 2 win over Whitecourt on the Saturday morning. Heukshorst scored five of the eight goals and Kerr got the other three.
The next game was against the Wheelers and went according to form, with Hinton winning 5 – 0.
“It was one of those games,” says Hatch. “We didn’t do anything right at all.”
It didn’t dampen the Kodiaks’ spirits, however. They came out on fire against Edson on Sunday morning, winning 7 – 3. It was their first win over Edson all season.
mes all year,” says Hatch. “The girls decided they wanted to win.”
That win set up the final between Slave Lake and Hinton. Against the highest scoring team in the league, the Kodiaks threw up a wall. Try as they might the Wheelers couldn’t get one past Tanasiuk, while at the other end Heukshorst scored a couple and then Connie Schultz put the icing on the cake midway through the third period.
“When Connie scored, you could tell we were going to win,” says Hatch.
The Kodiaks will have to wait a while to be able to show off their championship trophy.
“Hinton said they forgot to bring it,” says Schultz.

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