Top 4 Teams Torque Up For Semis
March 10, 2009
By Anne Douglas

This weekend, four CWHL teams will be taking no prisoners in their quest to get to the Canadian Women's National Championship in Kingston, March 19-21.

The prize is being part of history, as this year's Championship will be a first-ever for women's hockey. The top two teams in the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) and the CWHL will face each other to claim the 2009 Clarkson Cup.

The WWHL and CWHL boast players from both the US and Canadian Olympic teams, so the Championship will be some of the best women's hockey played anywhere in the world.

"It's all or nothing at this point in the season," says Lisa-Marie Breton-Lebreux, captain of the Montreal Stars. "For an elite athlete, it's about the challenge. It's the ultimate thrill to play against the best of the best in our sport."

Mississauga and Brampton will square off at Century Gardens in Brampton, while Burlington will take on Montreal at Etienne Desmarteau in Montreal.

All four teams are concentrating on what it’s going to take to earn a spot in the finals.

"In order to come out on top this weekend, we are going to have to play very disciplined and play a strong team game," says Jayna Hefford, assistant captain of the Brampton Thunder and one of the CWHL's top scorers. "We will need good goaltending and we need to be successful on our special teams opportunities. We need to play a 60-minute game, as there will be no time for any mental lapses."

In preparation for playoffs, many of the teams have been changing the focus of their practices. Across the board, team practices have gotten more technical. For some, that means focusing on the power play and penalty kill. For others, it means keying in on team tactics and working on units, pairs and lines.

"At the beginning [of the year], we tend to focus more on individual development and skills, whereas now we are making practices more game-like and fine-tuning special teams as we make our push for the playoffs," says Lara Perks, right-winger for the Mississauga Chiefs. "Everyone is coming to practice to compete and work hard and we are very focused for the upcoming games."

Along with running team practices with the finals in mind, individual players are working on being personally and mentally prepared. For many of these players it's not easy as they've got full-time jobs, school or children, but they haven’t made it to Canada's most elite women's league by letting adversity affect them.

"You have to go about your regular life, but you're always aware that the two big games are coming," says Allyson Fox, who plays defense for Brampton. "For me, if I make sure I've done the physical preparation in terms of sleeping and eating and working out, then the mental focus comes naturally."