Playoff magic just around the bend

Headingley

Garden City

Winnipeg

It’s fully February now, and that means it’s nearly playoff time for the Manitoba Women’s Junior Hockey League.

With only a handful of games remaining, long-standing schedule maker and play-by-play announcer Michael Gerl believes it’s still anyone’s league to win.

“We’ve had one of the most competitive regular seasons I’ve ever seen,” said Gerl, who also sits on the executive and has been involved with the MWJHL for 15 years. “It’s going to be wild, with the new playoff format. We’ve had a lot of one-goal games, lots of comebacks, two-goal games with the goalie pulled. I’ve never seen it this close this late.”

The Western Predators held the top spot in the eight-team league at press time, with a 17-4-3 record, good for 37 points, while Polar Ice were in second with 33 points and a 15-5-3 record, and the Prairie Blaze weren’t far off in third, with a 13-5-4 record and 30 points in only 22 games.

Once each team has finished its 28-game schedule, the top team will face off against bottom team, and so on, in best-of-five series starting Feb. 25. Teams that lose in the opening round will play in a consolation tournament, which will also feature a team from Thunder Bay, while the remaining four teams will face off in best-of-five semifinals to determine who plays in the best-of-five final in March.

“This is probably by far the best year talent-wise, and being competitive,” Polar Ice coach Dave Benediktson said. “I have no idea who is going to win, it could be anybody. You never know.”

“This year is the most competitive I’ve been here, top to bottom. It’s exciting,” said Ryan Hrankowski, seventh-year coach and general manager of the defending champion Silvertips. “It’s a great brand of hockey. The girls work hard, they’re physical, it’s fast-paced.”

The MWJHL was founded in 2004 and provides a place for women between 18 and 21 a place to play competitive hockey, with each team being allowed to carry up to three 22-year-olds on its roster. Most games are played at the Hockey for All Centre, located at 3969 Portage Ave.

“It provides an option for some high-level, competitive hockey,” Hrankowski said. “In my opinion, it’s right there with a lot of the U.S.-based college leagues. Over the years, we’ve been attracting a lot of AAA, high-end players who are now deciding to play in this league, to stay home and go to school or work full-time.”

Although the Silvertips lost a few key players to graduation and university commitments this season, Hrankowski said the team, which was tied for fourth place with 27 points at press time, is coming together at just the right time.

“We’ve been playing well, and everything’s so tight in the league,” he said. “We’ve got a younger team, and things are starting to get back to our championship calibre.”

Polar Ice captain Samantha Carvalho, 21, agreed that the level of competition within the league is top notch.

“I think it’s a really positive space for young women,” Carvalho said. “It still gives us the sense we’re playing high level hockey and pursue and education and working. Everyone is very supportive. There’s a real community.”

“The best thing for the girls is they can play in our league and still go to school and work. We practice once a week, and we usually play once or twice a weekend,” Benediktson said. “It’s still very competitive. I’d classify it as a high-AA, mid-AAA league, but junior.”

Carvalho played both ringette and hockey growing up, and then played for Garden City Gophers of the Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League from grades 9 through 12. After graduating, she took a year off competitive hockey. But playing beer league hockey while pursuing her studies made her realize she missed high-level competition. At the start of the 2023-24 season, she tried out for the MWJHL and was drafted to the “new” Polar Ice squad.

“For the most part, the core has been the same (since then),” said Carvalho, who has one goal and five assists through 22 games this season. “This year we have three new rookies who have really jelled with returning players. This is the year we’re finally having that chemistry. The lines are doing well. We all get along so well. We’re doing really well, battling for first place.”

Benediktson has been involved with the league going back about 15 years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, two teams were dropped from the league owing to low numbers. The Polar Ice was one of those teams, but returned for the 2023-24 season.

“Being an expansion team, we were not very good,” Benediktson admitted. “But last year, we got a bit better. This year, we’re playing above our heads. Our roster is mostly made up of girls who turned 18 three years ago, as well as two or three rookies who came in each year. Next year, they will be a bunch of veterans. They’re a great group of girls who try really hard. We’ll see what can happen in the playoffs.”

Although Carvalho is in her final year of eligibility, she is hopeful that she may get a chance to play again next year as an overage player.

“I’d love to do that,” she said. “Hopefully they’re not sick of me yet.”

Visit themwjhl.ca for more information.