Wickenheiser predicts better to come after pressure-filled first game
KEVIN WARD
Canadian Press
Sunday, January 12, 2003
CREDIT: (AP/Lehtikuva, Jussi Nukari)
Kirkkonummi Salamat's female Canadian player Hayley Wickenheiser is kissed by two visiting team Kettera players on Saturday. (AP/Lehtikuva, Jussi Nukari)
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KIRKKONUMMI, Finland (CP) - Hayley Wickenheiser declared her first start for a Finnish men's hockey team a success, although her historic performance and all the hoopla that went with it left her a little exhausted.
Canada's leading female player is also confident that the best of her game in Finland's second division is yet to come.
"Right now I'm just a little drained emotionally," said Wickenheiser, who made hockey history by becoming the first woman to record a point in a men's game Saturday.
"I'm very capable of playing in this league and I think obviously I held my own in the physical play, I didn't get knocked around on the ice.
"I knew I would be taking some hits probably early on more than usual, but I felt fine and it's only going to get easier from here on in."
Wickenheiser is on a 30-day tryout with the Kirkkonummi Salamat, who beat the Imatra Kettera 7-3 Saturday. The last two games of her audition are next weekend. Both games are on the road.
Playing at centre, Wickenheiser's impact was felt early on when she dragged the puck back from a faceoff to defenceman and team captain Matti Tevanen, who tied the game at 1-1 with a slapshot at 13:17 of the first period.
The Varuboden Arena erupted when the goal was scored and Wickenheiser, 24, from Shaunavon, Sask., admitted to feeling a little relief at making the scoresheet.
"It was an exciting moment, I felt kind of a little bit of the weight off my shoulders, but then I had to kind of refocus," she said. "I said to myself it's only the first period, there's two more to go."
Wickenheiser's first game was under close scrutiny, with 84 media representatives accredited for a game that would normally only attract the local newspaper.
The Sunday newspapers in Finland were filled with coverage of Wickenheiser.
A picture of Wickenheiser celebrating with her teammates after her assist and a story about the game was on the front page of the Aamulehti newspaper.
One headline warned Finland's male hockey players to watch out, because Wickenheiser is coming.
She was also on the front page of the sports sections of other newspapers, including one of Helsinki's largest newspapers, the Helsingin Sanomat, which bumped coverage of Finland's Elite League to the second page.
The Elite League, where the country's top professionals play, is two rungs above the second division, where players either go to school or hold down jobs to supplement their hockey income.
It had been thought Wickenheiser was making hockey history by becoming the first female position player - three others have played goalie - to play with men, but it now appears a German woman beat her to it in 1998-99.
Maren Valenti played 24 games for Freiburg of Germany's second division, but didn't register a point or a penalty during her time with the team.
Mike Stapleton, a former NHL player who last played for the Vancouver Canucks, was impressed with Wickenheiser's play.
"I don't think she looked out of place one bit," said Stapleton, who plays for the Espoo Blues in the Elite League and did colour commentary on the game for WTSN in Canada.
"She too good of a player, too smart of a player not to succeed in this league," he added.
At five-feet-nine, 170-pounds, Wickenheiser wasn't the smallest player on the ice. She took every hit thrown at her, most of the time staying on her feet when she was checked, and blocked players out of the play more than throwing bodychecks herself.
"She just needs time and as for the physical presence, she got to learn to use her body in different ways, where she doesn't have to check the guy she just has to put herself in the way," said Stapleton.
The game was a big event for the small town of Kirkkonummi, 30 kilometres west of Helsinki.
To cope with the demand for tickets the team got permission to allow extra standing room in their 1,000-seat arena, which meant allowing a sellout crowd of 1,200 people in for the game. The team's largest previous gate was 758 in September when the community opened its new rink.
Wickenheiser was the clear focus of most fan interest, with chants of "Hayley, Hayley" echoing through the building when she lined up for faceoffs.
Wickenheiser's assist was her biggest offensive moment as she failed to record a shot on goal.
With the game out of reach at 7-2, however, Wickenheiser did put the puck in her own net when she tried to clear it off her netminder's goal line at 17:17 of the third period. An opponent checked her, sending the puck into the net off the blade of her stick.
"I wish it were the other way around but that's part of hockey," Wickenheiser said in a post-game interview broadcast to a few hundred people in the arena who remained behind to listen.
The captain of Canada's gold medal Olympic team played 11.23 minutes, including killing a penalty and playing on a power play in the third period. Her line contributed the one goal and was on the ice for two goals by the Imatra Kettera.
She took 18 faceoffs, won nine of them, lost six, with the other three declared ties.
The Salamat's head coach, Matti Hagman, said he was nervous for Wickenheiser before the opening faceoff, but was pleased with her performance.
"She played on the level that we asked," he said through an interpreter.
Wickenheiser said she didn't expect to play in special team situations and cautioned people not to read too much into one game, one way or the other.
"Anybody who know hockey knows that you really can't evaluate a lot on one game," she said. "I think as time goes on I'll get a better indication of how things are going to go."
