This Week's Intermission Features

I spent the last two nights at Wayne Fleming Arena watching the Bisons battle the Saskatchewan Huskies as both teams looked to sort out playoff spots in their final games of the season. I'll recap everything tomorrow, but let me leave with a teaser here in that we may have seen the best two hockey games played this season over the last two nights. Because there were two nights of hockey, though, we ran two additional intermission features on stories from Canada West, and I'm going to post them here once again because I believe they're worth seeing.

As you're likely aware if you read this blog, there was a great charity game done by the Saskatchewan Huskies last week where Rhodes McNairn was guest of honour at the game while Haven Kids' House was the recipient of the proceeds raised by the game. I had a chance to sit down with Bailee Bourassa this week as she was driving force behind this game after meeting Rhodes at the Jim Pattison Children's Hospital while working as a nurse. Here are Bailee's thoughts on that night, her friendship with Rhodes, and how much money was raised for Haven Kids' House.

The next main intermission piece was run on Saturday as it was Senior Player Day at the barn with our graduating players being honoured for their efforts while skating with the Bisons. There's always a question as to whether they'll continue playing hockey at the next level - PWHPA, PHF, SDHL, or elsewhere - or whether they'll follow their academic pursuits into professional life.

Before we get to those who are playing, CBC Kids News sat down with current Bisons forward Julia Bird to discuss the demise of the CWHL and where professional hockey for women needs to go, and spoke to Manitoba and former Olympian Bailey Bram about the situation as well. From there we ask the question what the next steps are since there is no NHL-like professional league for women yet, and we took a look at former Canada West players currently playing professional hockey across the world!

We also ran a quick feature in the second intermission of Saturday's game because Lauren Warkentin, who is a graduating, still holds a distinction that no one else can match. Lauren's first Canada West goal in her career came against UBC that day, and she'll be forever immortalized on Hometown Hockey as they captured her goal being scored! To the best of my knowledge, she's the only Canada West player to have her first career goal - maybe any goal? - shown on Hometown Hockey! How cool is that?

Playoffs are next for the Bisons, but what position they'll be in and who they'll play will be determined by the end of next week. There will be additional intermission features for the playoffs once everything is settled, but we'll see what next week brings.

In learning how to do make these features, though, I feel like we're really elevating the Bisons women's hockey broadcasts in a big way. For those who reached out with comments as to whether they felt they were worth it, the collective answer was "yes" and we'll keep doing these features because of that feedback.

Thanks for watching, folks, and thanks for the feedback on our efforts!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!