The CFB Halifax Mariners was unbeaten through the Canadian Armed Forces Atlantic region women’s hockey tournament February 14 through 16, taking the title – and the rights to represent at CAF nationals in March – in a 9-4 win over 5th Canadian Division Support Base Detachment Gagetown.
14 Wing Greenwood hosted the three-team tournament out of the Greenwood Gardens Arena – the first women’s regional hockey tournament since 2019. Acting wing commander 14 Operations Support Squadron Lieutenant-Colonel Lara Jennings welcomed athletes, coaches, officials and volunteers, dropping the official puck at opening ceremonies February 14.
“Welcome to our friends from Gagetown and Halifax. We hope you have a fantastic tournament, and we’ll be in to watch the games.”
Greenwood opened against Halifax, which took a 3-1 lead out of the first period and never looked back. Halifax scored twice more in the second period to Greenwood’s single; and then took it to a 6-4 win.
The second game February 14 saw Gagetown take on Halifax. The teams were close at the end of the first, with Halifax ahead 2-1; through the second, Halifax took over with five more goals. The end score was Halifax 8, Gagetown 2.
February 15 was a Greenwood vs Gagetown double-header. In the regular schedule that morning, Greenwood and Gagetown took a 3-3 tie into the third, when Greenwood scored the winner. Final score was 4-3 Greenwood. Both teams met again in the evening semi-final, a scoreless stretch late into the third, when Gagetown took the 1-0 win.
The final February 16 saw Halifax go in as the favourites: they has two goals by nine minutes into the first, but Gagetown got one in to close the period. The second period was a flurry of scoring, as Halifax scored four times, including one on the game’s only penalty (two minutes against Gagetown); and Gagetown scored twice, eight seconds apart. Halifax took their lead into the third and added three more goals to Gagetown’s single, winning the championship 9-4.
Jennings returned for the medals and trophy ceremony, first awarding tournament MVP honours to Gagetown captain Master Warrant Officer Lizette Leblanc.
“This MVP award is for working hard, and keeping her team up and the energy positive all week,” said Personnel Support Program sports coordinator Alyssa Platt.
“Congratulations to our winning Halifax Mariners, and thanks to all for a really great tournament – every team worked hard this week, and we all enjoyed watching you. Thanks to all the volunteers – the goal light and score keepers; our officials – some of you travelled from Gagetown; and the athletic therapists.”
CFB Trenton will host the women’s nationals March 20 to 25.
Mariners players – past, present – team up on the bench
Two Mariners, past and present, ran the Halifax women’s bench at regionals, acknowledging action on the tournament ice as “pretty much out of our hands” but confident in their team’s ability.
“We got them ready to play; we settle them down,” said head coach Warrant Officer (retired) Charlene Arsenault. “If they start to panic when the game may not be going your way, we just get them calmed down. They all know how to play hockey: they just have to play.”
Arsenault and assistant coach Sergeant Roxanne Lacroix came out of the dressing room to check the ice cleaning and net placement just before the February 16 final: “we gave them their talk – and now we’re nervous!” Arsenault said.
Lacroix, a lab technician with Canadian Forces Health Services (Atlantic) would have been on the ice with the team as an athlete, but took a bench role this season.
“This is my first year as a coach,” she said. “I bumped into Charlene at Costco earlier in the year and said, ‘Hey, Charlene, wanna coach?’ I wanted to be on the ice and catch that puck at the blue line, but it’s been really entertaining to watch the team play.”
Arsenault is glad she ran into Lacroix. She retired in 2019 after 33 years as a military dental hygienist, but played with the Mariners from the 1999 start of the women’s military hockey program until 2019.
“I grew up in Prince Edward Island, one of 16 kids with hand-me-down gear and we walked to the rink – there were no girl-only teams, and I wore figure skates until I got hit with a puck and grabbed my brother’s skates. In university, I played women’s hockey and we played town teams.”
Arsenault said leaving the military meant no contact with her hockey peers and the camaraderie she’d found in the game over 20 years, and coming back this year as a coach – with new opportunities to wear the Mariners-coloured hat, mitts and socks, knit by her 96-year-old mother – has been “heart-warming.
“Thanks to Roxanne for asking me!”
The women are thrilled with Halifax hockey this winter. Lacroix said over 40 military athletes turn out for practices, and the hardest decision was leaving some of them behind for the regional tournament. They play regularly in a city league (“We have fun,” she says of their level of success), and have nothing but praise for the impact on women’s hockey growth from Canada’s Olympic athletes, development and opportunity for girls growing up now and military supervisor support for women keen to come out for practices and competition.
“Everyone is having a good time, and there are no ranks on the team,” she says.
