The Huskies women’s hockey team were all over the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks on Sept. 14.

The Huskies women’s hockey team has plenty of new faces this season after graduating seven players at the end of last year.

With most of the players entering the season as rookies out of high school, the Dogs will attempt to prove to the rest of the league that their young players can compete among the best teams in the conference.

In all, four forwards, three defencemen and two goaltenders are new to the squad this season.

Perhaps most promising among the forwards is Cami Wooster, the twin sister of the team’s captain Cara Wooster. Cami and Cara both played their first two years of university sport eligibility for the University of North Dakota from 2004-06, before deciding to return to Canada to continue their schooling.

Cami attended the University of Alberta and played one hockey season with the Pandas while completing a degree in education. Cara attended a technical institute in Alberta but remained inactive in university hockey until her first year with the Huskies in 2010. Cara is now entering her final year of eligibility and is excited about getting one last chance to play with her sister Cami.

“We’ve been on the same line ever since we started playing hockey so it will be fun to rekindle that,” Cara said. “It will take us a little bit to get used to each other again but hopefully we can pick up where we left off a few years ago.”

Cassandra Jorgenson, Carlee Hrenkiw and Rachel Johnson will also suit up as Huskie forwards in their first year of eligibility. These young recruits are expected to help fill the large gap left by the departure of forwards Julie Paetsch, Breanne George, Kelsey Tulloch and Sara White, who all helped lead the team to a 16-6-2 regular season record and third place in the Canada West standings last season.

On defence the Dogs were able to recruit Saskatoon-born talent Alyssa Dobler. Dobler played with the Saskatoon Stars in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League last season. She tallied four goals and 17 assists in her final year with the stars and helped land her team a spot in the league final.

Two brand new goalies, and one familiar one, will make things interesting in the crease this season. Tehnille Gard and Cassidy Hendricks signed with the Huskies back in the spring, and goaltender Justine DeNure, who played one year with the Huskies in 2010-11 but took last season off, will rejoin the roster. All three goalies will see ice time during the pre-season before Kook makes a decision on who the starter will be.

“I think a lot of teams are going to look down our roster eligibility and they are going to see a lot of ones and twos in that column and we are going to get a chance to surprise some teams with that,” Kook said of his predominantly rookie and sophomore roster.

Kook believes his second year players are among the best sophomores in the conference and thinks they will give his team a fighting chance every night.

To be successful, the team will rely on captain Cara and her assistant captains Danny Stone, Shelby Davey and Megan Frohaug, who are all entering their final year of eligibility, to provide leadership to the ensemble of new players on the team.

The Dogs have already begun pre-season action. They defeated Lethbridge 3-2 in a shootout Sept. 8 and had a big 7-1 victory against the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology on Sept. 14. Stone scored a hat-trick in the game against NAIT while sisters Cara and Cami began to find their groove, each potting a goal in the match.

One change has been made to the women’s league format this season. By adding Mount Royal University to the league the women will expand their playoff structure to one that mirrors the men’s league, with two quarter final games, two semifinal games and one final to determine the Canada West Champion.

Your next chance to see the Huskies women’s hockey team is when they open the regular season at home against the Regina Cougars Oct. 5 at Rutherford Rink in Saskatoon.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf