MARKHAM, Ont. – Imagine this: A rookie snipes a natural hat trick in a championship series featuring many of the best hockey players in the world. And all three goals come in the third period. Ridiculous, right?
Meet Brianna Decker, the woman who just did exactly that. And sorry, Canada: Decker’s from the South.
The 23-year-old from tiny Dousman, Wisc., made her debut at the Clarkson Cup on Wednesday with a three-goal effort to lift her Boston Blades to a 3-0 win. She followed that up Thursday with another multi-point performance.
“It was nice, but honestly, I’m gonna give you the team answer,” Decker says, grinning, when asked about her hat trick. “Because that’s what it all stems from. It was a battle. It was a back-and-forth game and that’s what was fun about it.”
The Blades, who finished the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL) regular season atop the standings, have now earned a berth in Saturday’s Clarkson Cup final at the Markham Centennial Centre. They’ll face the winner of the other three-game semifinal series, either the Calgary Furies or Montreal Stars. Montreal leads that series 1-0.
Decker, a member of the American team that won Olympic silver last year, is in the conversation for Best Female Hockey Player in the World. She’s fast and shifty. At five-foot-five, she’s one of the smaller players on the ice, but she’s chippy, and she yaps on her way to the penalty box. “You get intense out there,” Decker says. She’s in her team jersey, black tights and black Bauer flip-flops, her blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. “It’s gonna be like that. It’s fun.”
Her second of three goals Wednesday came when she charged out of the penalty box, then picked up the puck behind the Toronto Furies’ net, made a few moves to walk out in front, then fired a wrist shot low on the blocker side.
After Decker scored her third on an empty net, Blades defenceman and Olympic gold medallist Tara Watchorn grabbed the toque off the head of coach Digit Murphy (owner of one of the best names in sports) and tossed it on the ice.
This type of performance isn’t unusual for Decker. She was the obvious selection for Rookie of the Year after a putting up nearly three points a game for the Blades in the regular season. Despite the fact she played only 12 of 24 games, Decker led the team with 32 points (16 goals, 16 assists) and a plus-25 rating.
A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, she won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2012 as the best female player in NCAA Division I.
After losing a heart-breaker in Sochi to a Canadian team that included her current Blades teammates, Genevieve Lacasse and Watchorn, Decker is hoping this Boston team can get it done.
“It’s my first time contending for the Clarkson Cup,” she says. “Our team has come a long way this season and we’ve really grown a lot together off the ice. It would be huge to win this.”
Even with a couple of Canadians who helped break her heart in Sochi last winter?
“To be honest with you, I have a lot of respect for them,” Decker says. “Those guys are great team players. We’ll see each other in another month or so from different sides of the ice. It’ll be interesting, for sure.”
Watch the Clarkson Cup final live on Sportsnet’s regional channels on Saturday at 2 pm ET.
