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Women’s hockey trailblazers earn Hall of Fame nod

Mar 24, 2018 | 6:40 AM

In 1991, a group of female hockey players from Alberta stunned the nation by winning gold at the Canada Winter Games.

This July, that team will be permanently enshrined at the Alberta Hockey Hall of Fame in Red Deer.

The squad was an underdog the whole way, defeating the heavily favoured Team Ontario 4-3 in the semi-final. Earlier in the tournament, they were squashed by Quebec 5-0, but went on to defeat Team BC 2-1 for the championship.

It was the first ever female hockey gold medal awarded at the Canada Winter Games, which were hosted by the province of PEI.

Red Deer resident and Clive-born Valerie Gill had two goals and six assists in the tournament. Upon learning the team was going into the hall, her thoughts turned to pride and being a trailblazer for women’s hockey.

“Women’s hockey has evolved so much in our province since 1991. When I played hockey, there were no female hockey teams anywhere — girls just played on boys’ teams,” she recalls.

Gill’s teammate Sheri Christoffersen (née McGuire), a native of Coronation, shares the sentiment of being pioneers for the women’s game.

“My daughter plays hockey now. I go out on the ice with her and I try to be a positive role model and encourage the lots of girls out there who are playing,” she says.

Christoffersen and Gill both went on to become two-time ACAC women’s hockey champions with Red Deer College after the body introduced the sport in 2000/01.

Gill also went on to coach at RDC, as well as at Grant MacEwan University and in Australia. Christoffersen currently plays with the Red Deer Bandits in the Calgary-based SAWHA.

“I’m just thinking back to all the progressive men and women who said of course girls can play hockey,” Gill continues. “They wanted to make sure that happened – people like Melody Davidson, Shannon Miller, a man named Rick Polutnik, he was really key in pushing for women’s hockey in Alberta.”

The team, which also included a 12-year-old Hayley Wickenheiser, will be honoured at a gala July 22 in Canmore.

It is being inducted alongside the gold-medal winning male team from the 1999 Canada Winter Games, former NHL goalies Grant Fuhr and Mike Vernon, long-time coach Wally Kozak and broadcaster Ron MacLean.