This past New Year’s Day, the Bruins faced off against the Canadiens at Gillette stadium to a almost sold out crowed as part of the NHL 2015 Winter Classic. Little to many’s knowledge though, the NWHL’s Boston’s Pride faced off against the CWHL’s Montreal Canadians on New Year’s eve. Playing for the Pride was Winthrop’s own, Jillian Dempsey.
Bob Varney, team handyman and volunteer, hands Dempsey her stick before she joins her team in practice in Everett the night before the Winter Classic.
“This is my first year with the Boston Pride. The past two years I was with the CWHL,” said Dempsey.
Dempsey went to Rivers School in Weston for high school and then played for Harvard. After that she played for the national team before joining the CWHL’s Boston Blades, which took the 2015 Clarkson cup.
This past year with the creation of the NWHL, saw the movement of many players from the Blades to the Pride team, including Dempsey. This winter classic game is almost a rematch of the final championship match from last season’s CWHL that faced the Blades against the Montreal Canadians.
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“I have played against them. We have had some pretty big battles, some big rivalries (in) the past two years, (with) boston and montreal,” said Dempsey. “We actually got the last say, because it was them who we had in the championship when we won the Clarkson Cup. They want some revenge.”
The difference between last year’s match and this year’s match is that it will be outside.
“Ya know, pond hockey wasn’t big for me growing up. I always put it on my Christmas list to have a rink in the yard and I always wanted to play pond hockey.”
“For a lot of people who haven’t seen the quality of play, I think it will be quite surprising for them,” said Pride coach Bobby Jay.
The game took place to an almost empty stadium with no tv coverage. The NHL did not heavily promote the women’s classic game as much as they promoted the alumni and Bruins game. With that said, the women played hard and fast.
It was incredible,” said Dempsey. “It was pretty short when we were out on the ice but there was a lot of adrenaline. Pond hockey on the biggest stage ever!”
The two periods ended with a 1 to 1 tie. “Obviously we wanted to win, but we did end up tying it up. Thank god because a loss would have really sat in my skull,” said Dempsey.
“Having the cross over was a great experience because they are highly talented and skilled. We wish we had a 60min game against them but it was great exposure. If we could have gone for another period we could have come out on top.”
The match saw heavy action and even the injury of Pride #24 Denna Laing of Marblehead who was injured near the end of the first period and taken out by stretcher. “She took a bad fall and we are keeping her in our thoughts, hoping everything ends up ok.”
Little is known at this time about Laing’s condition as the family is keeping it private. It is clear she took a hard fall.
Dempsey would like to see more crossover games between the CWHL and the NWHL. “The league feels successful, from our perspective, we seem to be drawing bigger crowds then we did with the CWHL. Our hope is that things continue to get better next season.”
The Pride is a new team, part of a new league and things right now seem to be going good as far as anyone in the league is concerned. Former US national coach Bobby Jay practices with the girls on the ice, taking part in their practice and not just giving orders. The support staff and players are like a family.
“I have known Jill for a while, I coached for the national team and she played for the national team for a few tournaments while I was there. So I knew her game and expected great things out of her this year and she surpassed them. She’s having a fantastic year for us.”
Women’s hockey has a lot to grow in the US and with two leagues competing for fans, two Boston teams alone, it will take time and effort to see which league is successful in the US. Dempsey has played for both leagues and hopes to see more women take to the ice.
In Winthrop/Lynn there is the Bulldogs girls hockey team that gives girls who enjoy the ice the chance to play in an all girls league, but not all towns and cities have that. This year Everett ended their girls hockey team and currently has one female, Casarra Roderick, as their goalie.
“A lot of kids get misguided and put too much emphasis on some things that aren’t as important as others. In my opinion the two most important things are, focus on where you are right now. Enjoy that experience and work to get better all the time. Don’t try to think I gotta do this to get their, all of a sudden you’ll be trying to line up three moves down the road when you're not getting the most out of where you are in that instance,” said coach Jay.
“Honestly the thing I would want to say to anyone for advice is to work hard and have fun. Playing hockey is the best thing ever and has brought me so much joy. Its my favorite thing to do, having that love for the game, that passion is going to drive you and motivate you to keep going,” said Dempsey.