It’s Boston versus Montreal for all the marbles.
The Clarkson Cup—the top prize in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League—has come down to a final between the Blades and the Stars on Saturday afternoon at Markham Centennial Arena. Here’s your guide for the game:
*Watch it live on Sportsnet’s Regional channels on Saturday at 2 pm ET.
*The Boston Blades, who finished the regular season in first place, could easily be confused for the U.S. national team. Boston’s roster includes five Olympic silver medallists from Sochi: Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker, Meghan Duggan, Kacey Bellamy and Monique Lamoureux. Duggan was Team USA’s captain at the Olympics.
*The women playing in this game probably couldn’t fit all their Olympic and world championship medals in one room. It might even sink a boat. A quick sample: Stars forward Caroline Ouellette is a four-time Olympic gold medallist and six-time world champion with Canada’s national team. Her Montreal teammate Julie Chu, a Team USA veteran, owns 13 world and Olympic medals.
Montreal Stars, three to watch
1. Charline Labonte. The 32-year-old net minder sports a 0.00 GAA in the 2015 Clarkson Cup, after posting two shutouts in the semi-final series against Calgary. Labonte, 32, of Quebec City, is a three-time Olympic gold medallist. This is how Ouellette describes her play: “Very, very incredible.”
2. Caroline Ouellette. The 35-year-old Montrealer ranked third overall in the CWHL’s regular season with 26 points. At a speedy and physical five-foot-11 and 170 lbs., you’ll notice her out there. Caro, as she’s known to teammates, is a three-time Clarkson Cup champion, and looking for her fourth. “I wanna win it with my friends, my teammates on the Stars that I’ve known for years,” she says. “It’s like my family.”
3. Julie Chu. The 32-year-old New Yorker carried the American flag at the closing ceremony in Sochi last winter. She’s the lone member of that U.S. national team on this Stars roster. Chu is tied as the second-most decorated American woman in Olympic Winter Games history, with four medals. A Harvard graduate, she won the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2007 as the top female college hockey player in the U.S. Like Ouellette, Chu is looking for her fourth Clarkson Cup.
*Speaking of the Clarkson Cup, like its older brother, Stanley, it’s been through a lot. Also, players aren’t too sure exactly what it looks like. It may or may not feature a mermaid. More on that here.
*Team Canada’s 2014 Olympic gold medallists Tara Watchorn and Genevieve Lacasse play for Boston, along with five Team USA players. Decker swears there’s no animosity between players on the rival national teams, just “respect.” Team Canada forward Natalie Spooner plays on the Toronto Furies (they were eliminated by Boston) with Team USA’s Megan Bozek. Spooner says the Olympics come up. “We sometimes have little jokes about gold and silver, just little stuff about them losing,” she says, grinning. “Megan’s light-hearted enough to take it now.”
*Nine players who treated us to what was probably the best game in women’s hockey history in Sochi last winter are playing in this final. This includes Catherine Ward and Lauriane Rougeau, of the Montreal Stars. Both play for Team Canada.
*Montreal has won three Clarkson Cups, the most of any team. Boston won its first in 2013, and lost in a shootout final last year to the Furies.
Boston Blades, three to watch
1. Brianna Decker. She scored a natural hat trick in her debut at the Clarkson Cup, she won the league’s rookie of the year award earlier this week, and she was the league’s second-highest point-getter in the regular season despite playing only 12 of 24 games. She has some of the best hands in women’s hockey.
2. Hilary Knight. The 25-year-old won the CWHL’s Most Valuable Player award in 2013, the first American-born player to do so. The five-foot-11, 172-lb. Knight scored a hat-trick in Boston’s 7-2 semifinal win over Toronto. Knight practiced with the Anaheim Ducks last October, and coach Bruce Boudreau called her “really, really good.”
3. Tara Watchorn. The defenceman from Ajax, Ont., is the owner of one of the most dangerous point shots in the league. Watchorn had 6 goals and 14 assists in the regular season, the most points from any d-man.
*The Olympians and world champions are the draw, but any national team player will tell you the face of the CWHL is the players who don’t play for Canada or the U.S. These women aren’t paid to play, and those who aren’t carded—paid by their national association to play for their country—work regular jobs. “I think it’s crazy that there’s so many players on our team that have a full-time day job and then come to practice at night and still have so much energy to practice,” Spooner says. “Some of them are teachers, some of them work in factories. There’s such an array of jobs. They’re all just so committed and love the game that they’re willing to play for no salary.”
*This is the third straight year the tournament will be held at the Markham arena. It seats 1,800, plus another 300 or so for standing room.
*The most die-hard fans at the Clarkson Cup might be Ed and Michelle Goodman. They drove seven hours from Marion, Ohio, for the tournament, and they have tickets for every game. “This is our vacation,” Ed says. He and Michelle both cheer for the Toronto Furies. “All our friends said, ‘Shouldn’t you be going south?’ I said, ‘No. We’re going to Canada for the Clarkson Cup.’ I always tell everybody, ‘Where else can you see all these Olympians and all these great hockey players, and for such a great price?’”