Cara (right) and Cami (left) Wooster.

The University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team has one of the most feared offensive duos in the Canada West conference — twins Cara and Cami Wooster.

The Wooster twins grew up in the small farming community of Salvador, Sask., and were always playing hockey together.

“My dad played hockey, my grandpa played too. So in our family as soon as you were old enough to skate, you play hockey,” Cara said.

This season marks the first time in five years that the twins have been united on the same hockey team.

After they graduated high school, Cara and Cami both moved to Grand Forks, N.D. where they received scholarships to play for the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

North Dakota had just moved into the NCAA Division I league and the team was having a hard time adjusting to the faster play.

“Hockey didn’t go great down there,” Cara said.

“We did well personally but our team wasn’t doing well and it was a negative atmosphere as far as hockey was concerned,” added Cami. There was even controversy over the team’s nickname and the club was eventually forced to retire the nickname “Fighting Sioux.”

After two losing seasons in North Dakota, the Wooster’s decided to come back to Canada.

Cara spent the next two years at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology where she graduated with a diploma in animal health technology. She then worked as a veterinary technician in Provost, Alta. for two years before coming to the U of S.

“I didn’t want anything to do with hockey for a few years because of North Dakota,” admitted Cara, who didn’t play again until she started at the U of S in 2010.

Cami transferred to the University of Alberta after leaving North Dakota. She played for the U of A Pandas for one year during her time there and graduated with an education degree in 2009. Since then she has been in Saskatoon teaching English as an additional language, which she is still doing part-time while she upgrades her degree through the U of S.

Finally back on the same line after all those years, the twins are excited to be playing together again.

“We always had success when we played together in the past and in my final year of university hockey I wanted to finish it by playing with her,” Cara said.

The team is excited about the duo too. The twins have combined for six goals and 14 assists through the first 10 games of the season.

They are also reuniting in a different way. The twins have moved in together and say for the most part their similar interests make it easy to live with each other.

The one thing they don’t agree on though is which NHL team to cheer for.

Cami cheers for the Edmonton Oilers, while Cara supports the New York Rangers.

“Our whole family is Edmonton Oilers fans except for me,” Cara said. “I was a huge [Mark] Messier fan, and when he got traded from Edmonton to the Rangers I jumped ship.”

Despite their allegiances to different professional teams the two can certainly agree that they miss watching the NHL during the current lockout. Watching games on TV was something they often did together in the evenings.

“It’s definitely disappointing that they aren’t playing,” Cami said.

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf