Ottawa Sun ========== HOCKEY DREAM NOW A REALITY CDN. CLUB PROVES IT CAN BE DONE By CHRIS STEVENSON October 25, 1996 URL: http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaSports/65_s1.html SMITHS FALLS -- The trainer's room is a narrow table in a drafty hallway in front of the Zamboni guys' office, just down the hall from the open garage door. A blue tarp was hung up -- "Canada, Eh" spelled out in white hockey tape -- to provide some privacy. The members of women's Team Canada ducked their heads and hugged themselves as they trotted through the open garage door, wearing just sweatshorts and T-shirts, out into the lightly falling rain and gathering darkness. They tiptoed through the puddles to an adjacent building where they did their pre-game warmup in a storage room in the annex to the Smiths Falls Community Centre. And they liked it. "Pain is temporary. Pride is forever," said the message in felt marker -- in both official languages -- outside the Team Canada dressing room. "Those are minor things," said coach Shannon Miller. "They're irrelevant along the way." Team Canada, winners of every women's world championship played ('90, '92 and '94), took on their architecture rivals from America last night, bringing a taste of international hockey and a chance for the next generation of world champions to see their heroines in full, living, red and white. The building was crammed to its red cedar rafters with many girls from Smiths Falls' successful girls hockey program, their eyes as big as pucks, hoping they were taking a look into the future. Most of the players on Team Canada never had a girl wearing our national colors to look up to, never saw the national team come to her town's rink on a rainy Thursday night in October, never saw the world's best women players lined up on a blue line and everybody in the place singing the national anthem. "It's important for us to come to places like this," said Miller. "Going into the smaller communities is a really good idea. Everything stirs up. What we have, who you are and where you're going." Where Canada is going, of course, is the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, where women's hockey will be a medal sport for the first time. It's a long way in a lot of ways from the first recorded all-women's hockey game played in Ottawa in 1891. This Three Nations Cup is one of only two chances for Team Canada to play together -- the other is the world championships next spring in Kitchener -- before Nagano. "Team Canada stirs up so much emotion, especially at the grassroots level," said Miller. "Maybe there are aspiring Geraldine Heaneys and Manon Rheaumes watching. There haven't been role models like that before. A lot of girls grew up watching the NHL and hoping their brother would make it. That's as close as it got. Now they've got something to aspire to, it's a reality." Shannon's role model was her dad. Rheaume's favorite goalie was Daniel Bouchard. "The guys always had the NHL to look forward to," said Rheaume. "Now the girls can look forwards to the Olympics. It's important for us to be out here, to talk to them. When they see girls going to the Olympics, it could push them to play." And the youngsters are captivated. After Team Canada's win over the U.S. Monday night, long lineups of girls formed for autographs. It'll probably be the same tomorrow when both the Canadian and American teams will be available for autographs at the St. Laurent Shopping Centre. The Canadians will be available from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Centre Court and the Americans will be at the same location from 2-3 p.m. Tickets for Sunday's final ($5) will be available. Canada had clinched a spot in Sunday's final (3 p.m. at the Civic Centre) of this Three Nations Cup before last night's game against the Americans. But the Americans scored an important victory last night -- 2-1 in overtime -- their first win ever against Canada. It was an important psychological hump that was conquered on the road to Nagano, though all that stuff seemed insignificant when Team Canada forward Karen Nystrom was taken to hospital after falling into the boards in a desperate lunge for a loose puck (she returned to the rink later, shaken, but okay). Her effort was typical of the drive displayed by both teams. Anybody who might have rolled their eyes when Team Canada's Nancy Drolet and Cassie Campbell went to the bench after the anthems to fix their hair before putting their helmets on ... hey, Jaromir Jagr does the same thing. _________________________________________________________________ CANOE home | We welcome your feedback. Copyright © 1996, Sun Media Corporation and Rogers Multi-Media Inc. All rights reserved. Please click here for full copyright terms and restrictions.