Women’s hockey team heading into a ‘transition’ year this season

The STU women’s hockey team celebrating after a win. (Credit: STU Athletics)

STU’s women's hockey season is peaking on the horizon and Tommies hockey fans are on the edge of their seats for their return this year.  

Last year, the team lost in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) playoff semifinals to the St. Francis Xavier X-Women for a second straight season. Fast forward to this season, when the team is set to return to the ice for some pre-season action before the puck drops on the 2025-26 AUS season.  

The team will play four pre-season games. Two of them were against schools outside of their conference, including Queen’s University Gaels and the University of Alberta Pandas. 

Meanwhile, the other two are against the UNB Reds and Mount Allison Mounties, a pair of AUS rivals.  

Both games went past regulation time to determine a winner. During the first game, STU took Queens to their absolute limit. The team came back to tie the game at two. 

Unfortunately, they fell in the shootout.  

The following night, STU had a similar result against Alberta. The team won 3-2 in overtime, following a game-winner midway through the extra frame.  

Peter Murphy, head coach of the Tommies, is heading into his 24th season behind the bench. 

Murphy believes STU’s hockey team is entering into a “transition” year this season. The team lost a pair of offensive players during the offseason, including former captain Ekaterina “Kat” Pelowich. 

At the same time, he is excited about the pieces the team brought into the program during the offseason.  

“We have a few key players that moved out and then we have some new ones coming in. So, it'll be interesting to see once [the] puck drops, what those new players do … that's one of the things that exhibitions can do,” said Murphy.  

Murphy said the players are starting to come together and bond with each other for the upcoming season.  

“The girls are practicing well. They're playing hard against each other, which is always good to see. Sometimes, that takes a while to get people to practice hard against each other. But they're doing well and everybody showed up in really good shape,” said Murphy. 

Playing against teams from other conferences is uncommon for the Tommies. They only tend to see squads like Queens and Alberta during Nationals.    

According to Jordan Chaulk, fourth-year centreman, exhibition games against other USport opponents are a great way to prepare them for Nationals.

“[Those games will] give new players coming in a chance to see what the pace is like in our league, because it is different from playing high school hockey and stuff. And then it'll give returning players who are playing with different lines a chance to figure out some chemistry,” said Chaulk. 

Chaulk was named the captain of the Tommies during the offseason. She called getting the captaincy a “great opportunity,” one that is a step up from her role as an assistant captain last season.  

“I've got a great group of girls upon me who are helping me lead the team. I just happened to be the one wearing the C. But still, it's a great opportunity. I'm super happy that my coaches and my teammates thought that I could step up and take that role,” she said.  

Angela Wisniewski, an associate professor in the journalism and communications department at STU, said she has been “counting down the days” until the team hits the ice for a really long time.  

“I'm expecting a lot of close and exciting games, but I also think that we've shown what we can do,” said Wisniewski. 

Wisniewski’s fandom began when her students invited her to come watch their games.  

“I think it just adds to what we already have going, which is that we do have lots of other teams that we play against in the AUS and our team gets quite a diversity of other players that they're up against,” said Wisniewski. “But, bringing in two teams from outside, it's just that unknown. And seeing how they react to the unknown will only help push them to be more adaptable.” 

The Tommies’ regular season officially kicks off on Oct. 1 against the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers.