Getting in on the final thoughts parade

Mark Masters (right) served in a variety of roles for SSN Canada during the national championship including as play-by-play voice, in-studio host, cameraman and sideline reporter.

What a tremendous tournament. There's so much to write it's hard to know where to start. But here goes:

- Webcasting is such a great tool for universities to use in promoting their athletes and events. During the four-day tournament every official from every university I ran into said something along the lines of, "We need to do more of this in the future." I certainly hope this results in more university sport webcasting (especially for every national championship) in the year to come.

- Keeping that in mind the University of Ottawa deserves tremendous credit for making the webcasting happen this weekend and also putting on a tremendous show. John Bower and the entire uOttawa staff did a great job making sure the championship ran smoothly.

- The great thing about university athletes is accessibility. I think what really made our coverage work was the unbelievable access we were given to players, coaches and officials. In the professional sports world you get about a minute with the top stars, but at the university level in Canada you get to really talk to the people.

- Some of my favourite moments during the competition included interviewing fans and friends of the players. There is so much more to a national championship than just the games. A national championship brings together an entire community and that's what we tried to show on the webcast all week long.

- As for my thoughts on the final outcome. Alberta was a game team, they had experience and focus and a quiet confidence that was quite impressive. McGill had the talent necessary but this was always going to be the Pandas tournament.

Thanks to everyone who tuned in throughout the championship in greater-than-expected numbers. I certainly hope you enjoyed watching the tournament as much as we enjoyed putting the coverage together.

- Mark

Championship news from around the country: Final wrap

Here's a quick glimpse of how the country's media covered the final day of the 2007 CIS women's hockey championship.

The Ottawa Citizen (and most Canwest papers) ran this story about Alberta's win Monday night.

The Sun Media chain counters with their own wrap-up story. You can read it HERE.

The Edmonton Journal focuses on Lindsay McAlpine and her remarkable journey to tournament MVP. You can read the lengthy story HERE.

The Toronto Star and other publication picked up the Canadian Press story on the championship game. Take a look by clicking HERE.

The Gateway, Alberta's student newspaper posted THIS story to their website. It features a nice picture of two Panda players embracing after the win last night. Meanwhile, in Montreal the McGill Tribune talks about the championship that got away for their Martlets. Read it HERE.

Even our national broadcaster, the CBC, jumped into the fray by posting THIS story on their website.

Christine Rivet says their will be no "bronze lining" after Laurier's upset loss to Manitoba in the bronze-medal game. Her analysis in the Waterloo Record can be found HERE.

And finally, the Chronicle-Herald in Halifax finally produced some championship coverage with a brief story about Moncton's fifth-place showing. You can view it HERE.

Considering all the media coverage I think it's safe to say university sports are on the rise across the country.

Final thought from the Sidelines

Laura Thompson (right) covered the national championship as part of the SSN Canada crew as a sideline reporter. Here she gives her final thoughts on the tournament.

Well, the weekend is over and what a weekend it’s been. It was a really great experience for everybody. I had so much fun talking to the players, coaches, parents and fans and getting a glimpse into each of the teams. For all of those, who let me talk to you, thanks. We really appreciated all the time you gave us this weekend.

Although, I’ve got to say it was a little melancholy, too, because it reminded me of some of my old volleyball teams and just how great a team dynamic can be. Lindsay McAlpine of the Pandas summed it up perfectly last night when she said, “These 25 girls are my best friends.”

For some of these girls, they played their last hockey games this weekend. Others will be back next year and now with some CIS experience under their belts, but the teams will never be quite the same as they are now. It’s one of the those things that you really need to appreciate while you have it because it’s not going to last forever and the season always seems too short once it’s over. But, for all of these girls, playing at the CIS championship will always be a great memory.

As for me, working with the SSN team was fantastic. Everyone has worked so hard this weekend and I think the results prove it. For my final thoughts, I just want to thank everyone for the great weekend, Mark, Alayne, Stuart, Warren, Mr. Burton, Nick, Dan, Alex, but especially Kevin Burton because without the brains of the operation, the webcast might never have even happened! It’s been a great learning experience. I mean, how many people can say they were on the ice during the "Panda"monium? I hope I'll be back next year and I promise, I'll work on my puns.

Final Thoughts

Warren Meredith (right) was the voice of the Gee-Gees all season long calling the games on the Streaming Sports Network. During the national championship he appeared as an in-studio host as well as in the booth handling play-by-play.

The Alberta Pandas demonstrated why they win year in year out. Two teams from the west walked away with medals and that's a huge reason why any fans of women's hockey should be happy about the result of the gold medal game. Alberta's victory secures a second seat for another western team to advance to the championships next season.

The Manitoba Bisons demonstrated the perfect reason for another western team to advance, their bronze medal. With all due respect to the QSSF, Concordia and Carleton are still building towards the point where they should be at this tournament, one of them making it to the tournament next season would in my opinion only mock what the championships top six should look like.

The Ottawa Gee-Gees finished above Concordia and Carleton, yet they still lost all their games at this tournament. The Gee Gees should feel a little better knowing the way that Alberta and Laurier finished the tournament, and should be extremely proud of fighting back from being down three in their 6-5 loss to Moncton. It was a fantastic tournament where the right teams took home the hardware. This was a great experience for myself and everybody at SSN, one more time I'd like to thank all the many people who helped us along the way.

Something had to give

Two great teams who had faced off in the finals time and time again. This time they played to decide who would have the oppertunity to face McGill. The Alberta Pandas and the Wilfred Laurier Golden Hawks played a thrilling first period. The Pandas owned the first ten minutes and the Hawks the second half. In the second the Hawks had the perfect oppertunity with two five on three powerplay situations to get right back in the game, but the Pandas killed off the penalties and returned with a ton of momentum. Halfway through the second Wielgosz was pulled from the net and replaced by Knox, it was 3-0. Knox played fantastic and gave her team the chance to come back into the game and regain some respect but at the end of the game Alberta was victorious by a score of 4-2. The most interesting thing that will be seen tomorrow at the gold medal game is the goaltenders. Labonte and Tarleton are still in my eyes relatively untested in this tournament and one of them will be the hero tomorrow night. Both teams chased the starting netminder of all the teams they played in this tourney, so does Labonte or Tarleton get chased tomorrow? It's going to be a fantastic game. Finally, the Ottawa Gee-Gees will play against Moncton for 5th...a meaningless game? Not if you ask the twelve Gee-Gees who will be playing in there last game wearing the Garnet and Grey.

Should body checking be allowed in women's hockey?

We were lucky to have Hockey Canada scout Wally Kozak on the webcast Saturday and during my interview with him he had a lot to say about the women's game in general. You can watch the archived interview HERE.

One thing that stuck out to me was Kozak's comments on body checking. He had just come from a scouting trip south of the border where he watching the NCAA women's hockey championship. He said the American game featured more body contact, not full body checking, but enough to get the tempo up and raise the level of competition.

Kozak suggested any move to allow more body contact in the CIS women's game would need to be accompanied by careful refereeing but it could be done. So I put the question out to the blog universe: should Canadian university women's hockey feature full body checking, more body contact or just keep the same rules?

Two days in the book, two days to go

Stuart Bowden is providing colour commentary for all games this weekend. Today he offers his insight on the championship thus far.

Things have played out pretty much as we have expected so far. McGill sits atop Pool A with a win over Manitoba. And we knew the Gee-Gees were going to be in tough in Pool B with games against Laurier and Alberta.

What no one expected was the undisciplined play of the young Moncton squad. Other then the Moncton fans, I think I was the most excited person to see this team play. They seemed to be just like our Ottawa team from 2003-04 that used its' inexperience to make a run to the silver medal at nationals. But after Moncton took 12 minor penalties against Manitoba, my excitement turned to disappointment. Maybe they need this trip to the Canadians to gain some experience for next year.

They say that women's hockey is a small world and that has been especially true this week. It has been great to mingle in the crowd with coaches, players, and just general hockey people that I have meet in the past. Sometimes I strike up conversations between periods and almost forget to get back to the broadcast booth.

And finally to my choice of shirt colors. It has just happened that the last two times I have called McGill games, they have fallen on a Friday. As a government employee in the National Capital Region, we are encouraged to wear red on Fridays to support the troops, an initiative started by the wives of troops at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. Since it has been successful for McGill though, I have informed the five other coaches that I will wear their team colours for the right price.

Day two highlights now available

If you missed any of the action from day two of nationals do not worry, our SSN Crew has you covered. Highlights from both games, including post-game reaction from all the coaches, players and fans is now available online. Just check out the Streaming Sports Network website.

Sometimes you don't even need to ask a question

Yesterday we were lucky to have a whose who of amateur sports officials in our SSN studios. CIS president Dick White, Hockey Canada scout Wally Kozak and Sport Canada official Roger Ouellette all dropped by to talk shop. We even had gold-medal winner Charline Labonte, currently starring between the pipes for McGill, as an in-studio guest.

But it was an interview with Gee-Gees forward Josianne Garneau that stuck out for me. Only moments after her game ended against Alberta last night (a 5-0 loss) Garneau ventured up to our studios to talk about the game. Still sweating and clearly disappointed by the result Garneau had the class to do the interview.

There wasn't much she could say. After all the Gee-Gees certainly wanted more from this national championship, but from just sitting beside her you could tell how much the tournament meant to her and this team. You only get so many chances to play in a national championship and you could tell how badly these players wanted to do well.

Sometimes you don't need to ask a tough question to know the answer.

Championship news from around the country: Day two

With the tournament halfway done the buzz surrounding this championship is only getting louder. Here's a quick taste.

The Edmonton Sun has a look ahead to tonight's crucial encounter between Alberta and Laurier. The winner will go to the gold medal game. Read the preview HERE. Sadly the Edmonton Journal story is for subscribers only. But if you are a subscriber you can read that story HERE.

Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Sun reports on Manitoba's big win yesterday over Moncton. But as Kirk Penton writes they're probably going to end up in the bronze medal game.

Chris Stevenson of the Ottawa Sun writes about how the Gee-Gees will play for fifth place tomorrow. Read his wrap on the hosts loss to Alberta yesterday by clicking HERE.

And finally, it looks like Moncton's team at this championship isn't the only one from the school making waves. The Times & Transcript has a brief on the university's men's hockey team, which you can see HERE.

Stay tuned, more blogging to come.

Gee-Gee's can't buy a goal AND "Riot at the Rink"

The Ottawa Gee-Gee's lost by a score of 5-0 for the second night in row. Ottawa went with goaltender Dipetta who despite the final score played a very solid game. Ottawa played a fantastic first period until the last minute when the first dagger was struck into the Gee Gees heart. The Alberta Pandas put on a great show for the last 40minutes not giving Ottawa anything. Ottawa now has to focus on regaining some confidence and fight for the right to call themselves "not the worst team" in the tournament. Looking ahead to the game I'll have the priviledge to call tomorrow, both teams that defeated Ottawa in fine fashion will collide tomorrow night at 7:30. I have decided this game will go by "Riot at the Rink". Neither goaltender was scored on by Ottawa and both teams scored 5 goals, so who has the edge? Wielgosz was tested more then Tarleton was but Alberta hasn't been scored on in the last 6 games now, that's a lot of shut-out hockey. Aiston, Bevan, Ironside, and Barch the big four will have to be great for Laurier as they'll be matched up against Barber, Podloski, Newton, and of course CIS player of the year McAlpine. She wasn't awarded that for nothing and was out to prove that against Ottawa. McAlpine picked up 4 points in her first game of the tourney. I'll do the fun thing and try to predict the winner and my choice is the Alberta Pandas. I was extremely impressed by the ferocious forecheck the Pandas had and there ability to almost completely shutdown Ottawa's offensive game for over 40 minutes. Still, the bottom line is whichever team gives the best 60minutes will win because when it comes down to talent these teams draw even.

What's hot and what's not : Day two

The medal round is starting to come into focus at the 2007 CIS women's hockey championship and the atmosphere has been fantastic at the Ottawa Sportsplex. Here's my daily take on what's hot and what's not.

HOT: Fashion trends

After her team's big win Saturday night, Pandas star and CIS player of the year Lindsay McAlpine joined us in-studio to talk about the game. Turns out she wears a green hat with a four-leaf clover on it after every game. It's her game-day hat and very fittingly it continued to be lucky on St. Patrick's Day. Meanwhile, on Friday Stuart Bowden's red shirt may have put McGill over the top vs. Manitoba. Whenever Bowden, pictured right during his days as an assistant coach with Ottawa, calls a McGill game AND wears red the top-ranked Martlets seem to win. Coincidence? I'll let the other bloggers decide.

HOT: Webcasting

CIS president Dick White appeared on the SSN Canada set today and said webcasting is an important way for universities to showcase their talent to alumni, fans and the general public. In the interview White said better promoting university sports in the media and beyond was the chief challenge facing his organization.

NOT: Scorers turned analysts

McGill star goalie Charline Labonte joined the parade of high-profile people into our SSN studios today. Labonte offered her insights on the tournament thus far during the first intermission of Manitoba's 4-1 win over Moncton. Tomorrow Carleton goalie Valerie Charbonneau will be back in studio to offer her insights. It's bad enough that these keepers continually shutdown the top scorers in the CIS, but now they're even stopping them from getting any analyst gigs.

HOT: Pizza

The entire press gallery got pizza Saturday night. On Friday the SSN crew ordered in some slices and got nothing but envious looks from other journalists in the press box. Tonight everyone got to share in the goodness that is pizza.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for more blogging and of course log on to the Streaming Sports Network website to watch another doubleheader Sunday starting at 3:30 p.m. with the pre-game show.

Day one highlights now available

If you missed any of the action from day one of nationals have no fear, our SSN Crew has you covered. Highlights from both games, including post-game reaction from all the coaches is now available online. Just check out the Streaming Sports Network website.

It doesn't get any easier

The Ottawa Gee Gees looked good in the first ten minutes of the game last night but once Laurier began getting shots on net the game was changed drastically. Unfortunately, Julie Lalonde was not on top of her game and eventually was pulled. Takeda came in and at times looked very strong. Today the Gee-Gees don't get to face an easier opponent, Alberta is a championship team and Stuart Bowdin said it before the tournament began, Laurier and Alberta are like 2a and 2b. So what must Ottawa do? Win. But really they do. My pregame predictions are that Takeda will get the start in the game tonight, but Takeda won't be able to win this game by herself...the Gee Gee's had better bring there "A" game, because I'd like the chance to call at least one Gee Gee goal for the fans at home.

Championship news from around the country

Here's a look at what the news media is talking about as it relates to the championship:

The Waterloo Record has a nice profile of Wilfrid Laurier bench boss Rick Osborne, a man they call "Mr. Thorough." You can read it HERE.

Now on to the game reports. The Ottawa Sun thinks the Gee-Gees are taking hospitality to a whole new level. Read the report HERE.

And don't forget SSN Canada intermission guest Neate Sager, who reports on the Gee-Gees lost last night on his blog that can be viewed HERE.

Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Sun is a lot kinder to their hometown team. Kirk Penton writes about how the Bisons are happy with their play despite losing to McGill yesterday. Read it HERE.

The McGill website has a thorough wrap of the win over Manitoba. Check it out HERE.

And as the defending champion University of Alberta Pandas prepare to hit the ice tonight vs. the host Gee-Gees (puck drop a little after 7 p.m. only on SSN Canada) HERE is a preview of the team's chances courtesy Canoe's SLAM! Sports.

Keep posted to the SSN blog for all the news and notes you need from the 2007 CIS women's hockey championship.

Hockey Canada scout, CIS president to visit the SSN studio Saturday

Super Saturday at the CIS women's hockey championship won't just include Alberta, Ottawa, Manitoba and Moncton, it will also showcase some of the key people involved with amateur sports in Canada.

The man responsible for scouting women's hockey for Hockey Canada, Wally Kozak, will join the SSN team in studio to talk about the talent on showcase at this year's tournament and beyond. Kozak arrives in Ottawa fresh off a scouting trip south of the border where he took in some NCAA action.

Meanwhile, the president of the CIS, Dick White, will also be dropping by to talk about the state of university athletics in Canada. White also serves as the athletics director at the University of Regina.

Kozak and White will not be the only big names on set Saturday. Roger Ouellette, the director of sport programs at Sport Canada will be on the webcast to talk about how the government is supporting sports and specifically amateur sport in Canada.

It all gets started at 3:30 p.m. only on the Streaming Sports Network.

What's hot and what's not at the Ottawa Sportsplex

Well day one is in the books at the 2007 CIS women's hockey championship. It was a day of highs and lows. Here's how I saw it.

HOT: Blogs

Not only has the SSN Canada blog been racking up the hits, we were lucky to have resident Ottawa sports blogger Neate Sager on the webcast tonight. Saeger writes a blog called Out of Left Field, which is a great source for folks looking for information on the university sports scene. Neate joined host Dan Blouin in studio during the second intermission of the Ottawa vs. Laurier contest.

NOT: Underdogs

Both higher seeded teams won on Friday as even the hometown Gee-Gees could not translate the home-ice advantage into a victory. All in all the lower seeded teams could only muster one goal, courtesy Manitoba.

HOT: Manitoba scoring

The Bisons one goal vs. McGill has to be seen as a moral victory when you consider Martlet goalie Charline Labonté has a GAA of less than one for the season (0.78). The gold-medal winner, who is only in her first year, posted an astounding 10 shutouts in 18 games during the regular season.

NOT: Other media

The SSN crew ordered in some pizza between the two games tonight. Once the food arrived it filled the press box with quite the aroma, leaving other members of the press to wonder where they could get some slices.

That's all for now, stay tuned for more blogging as the tournament moves in to day two.

Warren Meredith - If the Gee-Gee's are going to succeed...

As I prepare to leave home and head out for Ottawa's first game of the tournament my thoughts turn towards what the Gee Gees require if they are to defeat a team like Laurier. Shelley Coolidge and the rest of the coaching staff for Ottawa are going to tell there team to take this one game at a time, and they have to. Ottawa comes in ranked 5th and must face a team that only lost twice in the regular season and won the OUA championship. If we were to look into the recent past we'd find that Laurier has in recent years won a CIS championship and made it to the finals multiple times. Ottawa must look at this game as THE game to set themselves up a key challengers, if they win this game they will be regarded quite differently for the rest of the tournament. The Ottawa Gee Gees defeated the McGill Martlets 2-1 earlier in the season, it was the Martlets only defeat. How did they defeat McGill? Goaltending. Julie Lalonde was fantastic and the rest of the team was able to score twice on Labonte and that's quite a feat because her GAA was below 1.00. Ottawa later struggled in the playoffs with goaltending and if they are going to excel in this tournament they need either Lalonde or Takeda to be fantastic. Besides goaltending they will need there top line players of Duhamel, Blain, and Kerr to rise above the other teams top line players and that's easier said then done, especially when Laurier had several players score over 10 goals during the regular season.

Awards ceremony and coach press conferences now online

University of Alberta forward Lindsay McAlpine was named the CIS player of the year at an awards ceremony held last night in Ottawa. You can now watch highlights from last night's ceremony here.

The coach press conferences are also online available through the same site.

Puck drop of game one is just hours away. Alayne Crawford will anchor the coverage and Stuart Bowden and I will have the call. The number one team in the nation, McGill, vs. the ultimate underdogs from Manitoba, only available on the Streaming Sports Network.

Pre-tourney thoughts from the sidelines

Well, the tournament gets underway today and I’m going to say that a hometown crowd can make a huge difference in how a team plays. With Ottawa U being a strong contender, playing on home ice could give them the extra push they need to ring in the gold. They’re also the only team in the tournament to beat the number one seeded McGill Martlets this season, so that’s definitely a confidence boost for the Gee Gee squad. But, it won't come easy for them. The McGill team will come out firing on all cylinders and ready for a fight. Not to mention the other big contenders, like Laurier, the OUA Champs and the defending National Champs, the U of Alberta Pandas, are going to give them a run for their money. Either way, we're going to be in for some great hockey this weekend.

But, the tournament is just the final four days in a long season, so there is always room for the unexpected. Anything could happen and any team could walk away with the gold, like Yogi Berra says, "It ain't over, 'til it's over."

Stuart Bowden's tournament preview

Stuart Bowden will be providing colour commentary during the championship. Here he offers his take on how the tournament is shaping up.

McGill has to come in as the favourite to this year’s national championship. They have been on top of the CIS rankings all season and have only one loss to a CIS opponent, the host Ottawa Gee-Gees back in February.

Laurier and Alberta would have to be 2 and 2A. Both have won a national championship recently, Laurier (2005) and Alberta (2006), as well as sweeping through their conference championships.

Ottawa is the host team and could play spoiler to both Laurier and Alberta’s dreams of another championship. The Gee-Gees finished second to McGill in both the regular season and playoffs.

Manitoba is the second representative from the Canada West conference. They were at nationals in 2004-05 where they picked up a bronze medal. The Bisons were knocked off in the conference championship by Alberta in two straight games.

Moncton is the dark horse of this year’s tournament. They come in as Atlantic champions after finishing second to St. FX in the regular season and then shutting out both Saint Mary’s and St. Thomas (who upset St. FX) in the conference championships. They have several players in the top 10 in scoring but they have no non-conference games that I could find in order to compare them to other teams in the tournament. An Atlantic conference team has never won a medal at nationals but don’t be surprised to see Moncton playing for bronze on Monday afternoon.

The most interesting thing to watch this weekend should be the battle in Pool B with Alberta, Laurier, and Ottawa. It is possible that all 3 teams could finish with 1-1 records and placing would be based on goal differential.

Looking forward to a great four days of hockey.

Charbonneau joins the SSN crew

Carleton University Ravens star goalie Valerie Charbonneau will be joining the Streaming Sports Network crew. Charbonneau will offer insight and analysis of the games played Friday and Sunday.

As a member of the Ravens Charbonneau faced off with both the McGill Martlets and Ottawa Gee-Gees this season. Carleton lost to Ottawa in the QSSF playoffs in a three-game series that went the limit. Charbonneau posted an astounding 53 saves in Carleton's only win of the series.

Charbonneau was recently named a second team QSSF all-star.

The Countdown is on

The six coaches of the team participating in the championship this weekend will be holding court Thursday at the Sportsplex. The press conferences will be available live on the Streaming Sports Network website.

The actual games will get going Friday with top-ranked McGill taking on Manitoba. Alayne Crawford will host the coverage and I will have the call of the game with colour commentator Stuart Bowden. Laura Thompson and Nicholas Ruest will have reports from the benches.