The London Devilettes will begin their title defence this weekend.
It’ll be a much different team than the one that edged Stoney Creek 1-0 to win the Provincial Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) championship in April.
The Devilettes graduated 13 players, including Julia Gosling, Maggie McKee and Emma McKnight. The trio combined for 57 goals and 135 points, with McKee winning the league scoring title for the second-straight season.
All three are moving on to a higher level, with Gosling attending St. Lawrence University (NCAA) and McKee playing with Nipissing University (USPORTS). The team’s fourth-leading scorer from last year, Victoria Quance, is also playing for Nipissing.
Head coach Ted Brown says with such a major part of their offence moving on, they will need to find other ways to be successful.
“I think we recruited well over the summer, we’re very strong on defence and very strong in goal, but we lost a lot of scoring, we’re just going to have to figure out ways to put in the puck in the net,” said Brown, adding that the players are as hungry as ever coming off the provincial championship.
“Our strength and conditioning coach gave them a summer program with the expectation they would come into the season ready to go, and a lot of our players skated all summer, it’s good for our team having so many players that are this dedicated.”
A key returning player for London is Nicole Gosling, a younger cousin of Julia, who has also suited up for Hockey Canada in the past.
Brown says this year will be a younger team than last year, but he feels they have the players who are ready to step into bigger roles.
“We knew we had a good team last year,” Brown said. “Graduating 13 players, we had players on the under-18 national team, and we thought that we could do well last year, but we never imagined we’d win the provincials and the final fours.”
As far as the women’s game has grown, Brown says they continue to see more and more interest every year, and coming off a championship season certainly doesn’t hurt.
“The popularity has increased tremendously, I think the Devilettes program is really promoting the sport, and allowing a lot more girls to play, we had a summer hockey camp that I ran in August where we had 120 female players,” said Brown.
“When we started the camp four years ago we only had about 60 players, and we’ve more than doubled that, it’s pretty exciting.”
WATCH (Aug. 29, 2019): Women’s hockey continues to grow
The Devilettes open their regular season Sunday afternoon in Windsor as they take on the Southwest Wildcats. Their first three games are on the road before they have their home opener Oct. 4 against Durham West at London Sports Park.
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