Cousins Keyra and Madison Buziak have been close their entire lives, with Madison following her older cousins every move including emulating her as she began her journey through hockey.
“I’ve always wanted to play with Keyra because I’ve always looked up to Keyra,” Madison said. “When I was younger I always did what she did.”
That included following in her cousin’s footsteps to play with the Saskatchewan Female U-18 AAA Hockey League’s Saskatoon Stars.
“When she lived with me (last year) I was just like, ‘I need to make (the) Stars because I want to play with Keyra so bad.'”
The addition of Madison to the lineup has been a welcome addition for Keyra.
“Just being related (to her) means a lot, but we get along pretty good,” Keyra said. “It just makes the room feel like a family just a little bit more. Just to have the actual family in there, it’s pretty cool.”
Besides being close friends, the cousins are also each other’s biggest competition, consistently pushing to get the best out of one another.
“Me and Maddi, we love to goof around and just compete to an extra level with each other,” Keyra explained. “We like to make bets on who can do more. It’s always a good, fun competition everywhere.
“We have that connection, We know how far to push each other till we get angry with each other, but we try to stay under that little limit,” she chuckled.
“It’s awesome,” Maddi added. “Me and Keyra both love competing, we compete in every drill or doing skill work, like who can do better. It honestly just pushes both of us to be better as people and hockey players.”
“That’s what separates good and elite players, that compete level,” head coach Robin Ulrich explained. “Their ability to bring that in their own way just shows others how they can bring up their compete level, too.”
The cousins’ dogged determination to push each other to be the best has rubbed off on their teammates — something that’s helped the Stars to become an even better team.
“They get along on such a great level and it’s a great relationship. They push each other and they’re always competing. It’s fun,” Ulrich said.
“In practice they’re always keeping track in drills of different things and it just brings that compete level and just pushes everyone else as well.”
“When everybody sees me and Maddi competing on and off the ice they always want to join in to see who could do more (than) each other,” Keyra added. “It just brings us closer together.”
The two Buziaks are nearly inseparable, spending time together at hockey, school and with family.
But, even with the close bond that they share, there are some boundaries including the rules of the road: when Keyra is giving Madison rides to school or hockey.
“There’s definitely been times where I’m like, ahh I need to hurry, she might leave me,” Maddison laughed. “If it’s a ride with one of my friends they’d wait, but with family it’s like hurry up or I’m leaving you.”
“She knows that I’m pretty strict,” Keyra added with a laugh. “She knows that I’d make her walk, so she hustles to the car.”