Is This The First One Ever?

I normally save all the Canada West women's hockey chatter for Sunday on The Rundown, but tonight will need its own entry on HBIC because we might have witnessed history tonight. As you know, HBIC will push whatever article I may be working on to a later date if there's a goalie goal scored with video evidence, and it appears we have one tonight that could be very historic! The woman to the left is Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam, and she was the starter for the Bisons tonight against the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton in Game One of the Canada West quarterfinal series. I'll recap the game on The Rundown, but it appears that Shippam might now be in the record books!

First, let's go to the video of why Shippam may have made history!
Shippam was credited with a goal at 18:55 of the third period after the shot by Alberta Pandas forward Hailey Carothers went off Shippam's arm, off the boards, and down the ice into the vacant net to put the Bisons up 4-2 in the game, eventually winning 5-2. What makes this goal historic is that I can find no other records of any Canada West or U SPORTS women's hockey goalie being credit with a goal of any kind! Emily Shippam may be the first goalie to have a goal credited to her in any U SPORTS women's hockey competition!

To give you an idea of how rare this is in U SPORTS hockey, I went all the back to 2009-10 to see how many goalies had scored in both men's and women's hockey. I found three goalies who did in men's hockey as Alberta's Kurtis Mucha scored in 2012-13, Western's Lucas Peressini scored in 2018-19, and Saskatchewan's Taran Kozun scored in 2019-20. The women's stats for the same time period are non-existant entirely as it only shows the normal goaltending stats rather than having point totals included. Because of this, it appears that Emily Shippam is the first goaltender to be credited with a goal!

Because Canada West and U SPORTS have criminally underreported women's statistics for decades, I'm making it official: Manitoba Bisons goaltender Emily Shippam is the first U SPORTS women's hockey goaltender to be credited with a goal. I'm willing to change this if anyone can find proof that another goaltender was credited with a goal before Shippam, but this is the image that matters right now.

Clearly, Emily Shippam played a big role in the Bisons win tonight as she recorded the victory after stopping 18 shots, and she scored her first career U SPORTS goal at 18:55 of the third period to put Manitoba up 4-2! That's a great day at the office for Shippam as the Bisons are one win away from a Canada West semifinal appearance after Shippam helped her own cause in Game One with a goal!

Congratulations go out to Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam who, based on all the reading and research I've done, is the first goaltender credited with a goal in U SPORTS women's hockey history!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!