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Friday 4 April 1997

CANADIAN GOALTENDER ENVIES HER OPPOSITION
                                    
Martin Cleary
The Ottawa Citizen

KITCHENER -- Just once, Canada goaltender Danielle Dubč would like to
trade places with her counterparts from Switzerland or Russia.

Dubč, who lives in Vancouver, is jealous of Swiss goalie Patricia
Sautter and Russia netminder Irina Gashennikova, since they sometimes
face more shots in the first five minutes than she does in an entire
game.

Canada, the three-time defending world champion, fired at will in its
first two round-robin games here at the fourth world women's hockey
championship.

Dubč faced only five shots in a 6-0 shutout win Monday, while Sautter
was challenged 61 times.

Lesley Reddon of Mississauga played goal Tuesday against Russia,
stopping seven shots, while Canada unleashed 56 at Gashennikova.

"I've often said I'd enjoy suiting up for the Swiss or the Russians to
face Team Canada,'' said Dubč, who was the starting goalie against
China last night.

"Some players teased me that we had more goals than they had shots and
they wondered if we needed a goalie. Don't get rid of me yet."

Despite the lack of action in Monday's opening game against
Switzerland -- she didn't handle her first shot until 6:25 of the
second period -- she was charged by the excitement of her first world
championship game and the emotion of the fans.

Dubč, 21, kept her concentration throughout the game by doing
play-by-play commentary in her mind.

A regular member of youth boys' teams, including junior A and B in
British Columbia, Dubč started this season with the Central Texas
Stampede of the Western Professional Hockey League.

After playing two exhibition games, she joined Team Canada and beat
the United States 1-0 in the final of last fall's Three Nations Cup in
Ottawa. When she rejoined the Stampede, she took a hard shot on the
collarbone in practice. Thinking it was only bruised, she played two
league games.

Then she discovered she had a broken collarbone, which put her on the
disabled list for a month.

Despite the collarbone injury, Dubč still prefers to wear her flimsy
six-year-old chest protector instead of the new and bulkier padding
she tests, but stores in her equipment bag.

"I've had the same chest protector since I was 14,'' she said. "It's a
comfort thing. In women's hockey, there aren't as many huge shots."

Copyright 1997 The Ottawa Citizen