Feature: Leaving Ladies

Chelsea Grills (l), Annie Guay (c) and Sabrina Harbec (r) will compete at the Canada National Team Evaluation Camp

The following article appeared in the January 18 issue of The Watertown Daily Times.

By Cap Carey

CANTON - Three of the best players to ever wear a St. Lawrence University women's hockey uniform will head to Calgary, Alberta, on Sunday to try out for the Canadian women's national team.

The Saints will miss senior forwards Chelsea Grills and Sabrina Harbec along with senior defenseman Annie Guay for next weekend's road games at Union and Rensselaer while the trio spends seven days, beginning Monday, at the tryout camp.

"They rank up there with the Gina Kingsburys, Rebecca Russells and Amanda Sargeants as players that came in here as freshmen and had to play a significant role and had an immediate impact on our program," Saints coach Paul Flanagan said.

Not only have the three players excelled on the ice for SLU, each also carries at least a 3.0 grade-point average heading into their final college semester.

Harbec has 199 career points in 133 games heading into this weekend's contests against Colgate and Cornell, and has already set the school's career scoring record for both Division I and Division III women's hockey. She leads the team in scoring this season with nine goals and 23 assists in 22 games.

Prior to 1997, the Saints competed as a Division III program, so the school keeps two sets of records for women's hockey players.

Grills, a graduate student who missed almost all of the 2005-06 season with an injury, has 63 goals and 91 assists in 125 career games and is second on the team in scoring with 10 goals and 18 assists in 22 games. Guay, who missed some time with an ankle injury, has one goal and 13 assists in 17 games. A previous member of Canada's national team, Guay has 22 goals and 66 assists in 128 career games.

"These three, from day one, have played five-on-five, penalty-kill and power-play situations and have had to provide in many ways for us," Flanagan said. "They've had to be go-to players and those roles are typically reserved for juniors and seniors. When you have players of that caliber playing significant roles on a consistent basis, year to year, they've really raised the bar here."

With their college careers winding down, playing on the national team would provide the players a chance to continue their careers at a high level of competition. Unlike men's hockey, there really is no high-quality professional league for women.

"Once you are done with college, the (National Women's Hockey League) is the only place to play," said Harbec of a league that some players compete in before college.

Harbec, Grills and Guay have all competed on Canada's Under-22 team in the past, but Harbec and Grills will be looking for their first opportunity to play for the national team.

"The game is so much faster and there are bigger hits," Harbec said. "You don't have time with the puck and you can't carry the puck from one end of the ice to the other. The practices are really intense."

Grills and Guay are two of SLU's captains, and while trying out for the national team will be an honor, it's also going to be tough on the trio to miss two regular-season games.

"I'm pretty fortunate to have this opportunity," Grills said. "It's always a dream to play for your nation. It's pretty exciting, but right now my focus is with St. Lawrence."

SLU has already seen two of its former players not only make a Canadian national team, but win a gold medal for Canada in the Winter Olympics. Isabelle Chartrand won a gold medal in 2002, and Gina Kingsbury, who will be at next week's tryout camp, won a gold medal in 2006.