What’s it like to don a national Canadian team jersey and represent your country? Just ask Becky Irvine and Tara French of the Colgate women’s ice hockey team.
“It was a dream come true!” Irvine said. “During one of the games, the national anthem was playing, I saw the flag and I looked down.” She shakes her head in amazement, “I never thought it would happen.”
“It’s amazing. It’s an honor each and every time,” French said about wearing the red and white Canadian U-22 jersey at the 2006 European Air Canada Cup in Ravensburg, Germany last week.
Not only did Irvine and French compete internationally and collect points, but they had some hardware to show off. The Canadians were crowned the Air Canada Champions for the fourth straight year, finishing atop the standings with six points, and brought home the glass cup.
Canada posted a solid win over Finland 4-1 in the first game of the round-robin tournament on Jan. 5, and had a convincing 10-1 victory over Switzerland on Jan. 6. The culmination of the tournament, which drew its largest crowd of some 3,000 fans, pitted undefeated Canada against winless Germany on its home ice on Jan. 7. Canada lost 6-4 in the throw-away game to Germany, a team they had previously beaten 2-0 in an exhibition two days prior to the tournament.
French tallied her first international point early, assisting on Canada’s first goal of the tournament against Finland. Irvine followed in the next game, scoring the second Canadian goal against Switzerland.
It was the first trip to Europe for both players and the length of the flight across the pond was a shock, as they took turns sleeping on the floor.
The team had a German host to help them with communication but they found that a lot of people spoke a little English so the language barrier wasn’t much of a problem.
French recalls one thing that she found strange at first, “They don’t drink regular water, they drink carbonated water. We’d have to say ‘no bubbles.’ Our trainer would get water from the tap but everything else they drink is bottled or carbonated water, so by the end [of the trip] you are used to it.”
The tournament was played with international rules, which in turn created many penalties and an excess use of special teams.
Irvine explained, “Referees went by NHL rules so there were 15-20 penalties every game. They wouldn’t let anything go.”
With the number of infractions came special teams and in turn the majority of goals were man-advantage.
Another difference between college hockey and playing internationally was the size of the ice.
“The ice was bigger but we played four sets of ‘D’ so it wasn’t bad,” French said.
The players talked about the differences between the teams they play in the NCAA Division I and the teams they faced just one week ago.
Irvine said, “The skill level was a bit up, but our team was the much stronger team.”
“Germany was definitely the toughest because it was their senior team,” French said.
Irvine explained that she felt Finland or Germany were the most technical and that Switzerland was definitely the weakest of the competitors.
The final game of the tournament, between Canada and Germany had an 8 p.m. start time, unlike all the previous games, which were held in the afternoon.
Both French and Irvine tag the game against Germany as their most memorable moment of the trip.
“It was packed,” Irvine said. “And everyone was cheering and there were all these lights and stuff. There was 3,000 people at our last game and they were all going crazy!”
“The atmosphere was absolutely crazy," French agreed. "They had a band, they had drums, they had flags. Everytime they [German team] would cross center ice, they’d be on their feet cheering. If they wanted you to mess up they would whistle, a high-pitched shrieking whistle.”
“I don’t mind that stuff, some people get nervous because they were cheering against us, but it was still awesome and everyone was ready to go,” Irvine said.
French and Irvine will face some of their Canadian teammates in the next few weeks, as members of St. Lawrence, Mercyhurst and Dartmouth were also on the U-22 team.
"It’s helpful because you know how they are going to play…you have an idea where they are going to go,” French said.
“The overall experience of it all, it might sound cliché, but as a whole you learn so much about yourself. You are playing with people you never played with before, playing different systems you may have never played before, different coaches, different language, different refs, different style, so it's good to see how well you can adjust. Can you adapt yourself and still be able to produce? You definitely learn a lot about what you can and can not do.”
“It was an amazing experience, but I’m really happy to be back and be with the girls [the Colgate hockey team],” Irvine said.
Irvine, French and the rest of the Colgate women’s hockey team will face off against No. 8 Princeton on Friday, Jan. 13 at Starr Rink at 7 p.m. The Raiders will host Quinnipiac the following day, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m.
Contact: Kristy McNeil, Women's Hockey SID
January 10, 2005
