Sisters suit up for women’s squad
Potomaks will face Team USA
A wave of players from Canada’s most westerly province has hit the national women’s hockey team. Two are from the same family.
Sarah and Amy Potomak of Aldergrove, B.C., will wear the Maple Leaf in Canada’s twogame series against the United States starting Saturday in Plymouth, Mich. The second game is Monday in Sarnia, Ont.
The Potomak forwards and defenceman Micah Hart of Saanichton represent a veritable explosion of players from British Columbia, which has been under-represented on the Canadian women’s team for years.
Goaltender Danielle Dube is the only B.C. player to appear in a women’s world championship — more than two decades ago.
Sarah, who turns 19 on Monday, and 17-year-old Amy will be the first sisters to play on the national team together.
“There’s no words to describe how awesome this feeling is,” Amy said.
Added Sarah: “It’s kind of surreal. We’ve played together since we were little and stuff and always dreamed about being on the national team together, but we never really thought that would happen.
“The fact that will actually happen, playing against the U.S. together, is pretty special.”
Sarah is a shifty, abrasive forward with a sense of occasion. She has already scored five game-winners for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers this season.
Three inches taller and almost 10 pounds heavier than her older sister, Amy proved
The fact that will actually happen, playing against the U.S. together, is pretty special.
at Canada’s fall camp she can think and skate at national team speed, said Melody Davidson, Hockey Canada’s general manager of national women’s teams programs.
Sarah signalled B.C.’s drought on the national squad was ending when she was named to Canada’s roster for the 2015 Four Nations Cup.
The Potomaks will wear the Canadian jersey multiple times over the next month. Sarah was also named to the Canadian women’s under-22 squad, competing Jan. 4 to 7 in the Nations Cup in Fussen, Germany, and Telfs, Austria. Amy will play in the world under-18 championship Jan. 7 to 15 in the Czech Republic.
Hart; Erin Ambrose of Keswick, Ont.; Halli Krzyzaniak of Neepawa, Man.; Jillian Saulnier of Halifax and Saskatoon’s Emily Clark join Sarah in double duty for Canada in the U.S. series and the under-22 squad.
Saskatoon forward Sophie Shirley, who makes her national team debut in the U.S. series, will also join Amy on the under-18 team.
The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler were a turning point for girls’ hockey in B.C., in both inspiring kids to play and B.C. Hockey getting serious about putting them on the national team. B.C. Hockey used $330,000 in Legacies Now funding from the provincial government to overhaul its female high-performance program from 2006 to 2010.
It was a changed system by the time the Potomaks came along.
“There’s not a lot of depth in B.C., but I definitely think it’s improving,” Sarah said.