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Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 10:01:51 -0500 (EST)
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The following is an article from the globeandmail.com Web Centre.

Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Canada faces a world test

By JAMES CHRISTIE
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail


Cassie Campbell has seen the Canadian women's hockey team win world championships from both sides of the blueline, twice as a defenceman and twice as a forward.

 Next week, she's looking for her fifth consecutive world crown and Canada is looking for its seventh, but this time the team is going for hardware the hard way.

 The world championships, April 2-8, are in Minneapolis, Minn., hockey hotbed of Canada's rival and Olympic champion, the United States. Campbell was moved up to forward after the 1998 Nagano Olympics as the team rebuilt. There are now three rookies on Canada's blueline, facing a U.S. host that wants to put on an offensive show. Meanwhile, Canada may have to counterattack without the world's best female hockey player, Hayley Wickenheiser, who has a knee injury.

 It might be argued that the women's worlds are merely an appetizer for the real bragging rights  next year's Salt Lake City Olympics  but Campbell, 27, doesn't buy it.

 "Our win streak [30 games undefeated in world championship play] is very important. This isn't just preparation for 2002," Campbell said at the team's Toronto training camp.

 "We've never been a country that just prepares for the Olympics. We prepare to win every year, that's what makes us so strong as a hockey nation. It's important we strive for a goal of getting gold and keep the momentum going into the Olympic years."

 One thing that will help Campbell's momentum going into the Games is a sponsorship from Cheerios. "It not only helps pay the bills, but they support the work I do with young kids and promoting the women's game. I never dreamed of having a sponsor," she said.

 To improve, the team has relied a great deal on generating internal competition, since the only international team that plays at Canada's level is the United States. In recent years, the U.S. team has benefited more from meetings with Canada than vice versa. Moreover, some Canadian team members have enriched the U.S. hockey scene by playing south of the border on scholarships.

 Jennifer Botterill of Winnipeg plays for Harvard University and last week won the Patty Kazmaier Award as the top female player in U.S. college hockey. Her Harvard teammate, Tammy Lee Shewchuk of Saint-Laurent, Que., was a finalist for the award.

 Of the Canadian team's three new defenders, Correne Bredin of Warburg, Alta., plays for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and Isabella Chartrand of Anjou, Que., plays for St. Lawrence University in New York state. The third new face on defence, Colleen Sostorics from Kennedy, Sask., played for the Calgary-based Oval X-Treme along with Wickenheiser and Campbell. Defence was the area the team needed most to improve, head coach Danihle Sauvageau said.

 "With this team this year, it's a real mix of old and new," Campbell said, noting that forward Vicky Sunohara and defender Geraldine Heaney have both been with the nationals since their first world title in 1990.

 "This is the most talent overall I've ever seen in our camp  and there are some we have to leave at home because of the numbers," Campbell said. "They're just waiting for their chance. We look very strong going into the Olympic year."

 The United States beat Canada in both games of the TSN Challenge Jan. 31 and Feb. 2.

 "What we saw in January, we need to be closer together, tighten up everything and sharpen our system," Sauvageau said.

 The closeness as a team was apparent when about a dozen of the players showed up a week in advance of the camp to skate together. With no funding from the Canadian Hockey Association for the extra skating, Toronto-based players billeted the out-of-towners. Kelly Bechard and reserve Delaney Collins stayed with Campbell at her parents' home.

 Forward Dana Antal of Esterhazy, Sask., will also be making her first appearance at the worlds. She made the women's team last year but blew her knee out in an exhibition game a few days before the tournament. Strangely enough, it was a collision with Antal at the Canadian championships three weeks ago that resulted in Wickenheiser's ligament damage in her right knee. She hopes to skate on it this week, but may miss part or all of the world tourney.

 Canada will open against Kazakhstan on Monday. Other nations competing are the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia, China, Japan and Germany. 

 The women opened their week-long pretournament camp Monday at York University in Toronto. They will play exhibition games against Finland Wednesday in Brampton, Ont., against Germany on Friday and against an Ontario all-star team Saturday back at York University.








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