Huskies at their 'home' rink in Saskatoon. (Ben Tompkins/HuskieFAN)

By Ben Tompkins

Homecoming weekend

Several Huskies returning to their roots in weekend series at MRU

Dec 3, 2021 | 5:29 PM

A total of eight players currently on the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) Huskies Women’s Hockey team grew up within a 30-minute radius of Calgary.

Seven of them have made the trip as the Huskies visit the top-ranked Mount Royal University Cougars this weekend, Dec. 3 and 4.

Because of the pandemic modified season, this will be the only stop in Cow Town for the Huskies this year instead of the usual two.

For those several players and the rest of this hockey team, this trip becomes that more special, especially because they haven’t been to Southern Alberta since Oct. 26, 2019.

HuskieFAN caught up with a couple of the Calgary and surrounding area faithful, as they come back home to play in front of family and friends.

season begins on october 3rd

Chasing another banner

16h ago

Listen: A chat with former USask LB Lane Novak

Novak is making the most of his time with the Blue Bombers

Jun 23, 2025

Local Team

Mustangs' Somers, Andrusiak commit to U of S Huskies

Jun 13, 2025

Isabella Pozzi, the third-year U of S student and Calgary native on defence said it’s a great feeling for lots of the women on the team to play in Calgary, as many of their loved ones still reside in the area.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Pozzi. “It’s always nice when our families can get out to watch because they can’t usually come to all of our games because we travel so much, so coming to our hometown is super nice. We can get lots of our family and friends out, which will be super helpful in getting us fired up to play Mount Royal tonight and tomorrow. It will be a good battle.”

And for many of the women like Pozzi, they grew up knowing they wanted to play hockey and now they’re returning home and doing just that.

“Growing up playing hockey with girls, it was always a goal of mine to play at the university level, so it’s always been fun to come back and play against the teams. I remember going to watch Calgary Dinos games when I was younger, for example, so just being here, being able to play against teams like that, it’s super exciting.”

Kennedy Brown, another third-year Huskie, who actually grew up in Okotoks, about 30 minutes south of Calgary, said it’s fun to be returning to Calgary with this team, as a few of them played together before coming to Saskatoon.

“It’s cool too because lots of us played together when we were in midget,” said Brown. “It’s always exciting because we have a lot of memories in these rinks and coming back to play in our hometown adds a whole other level to it.”

The forward also mentioned how it goes both ways, as some of that familiarity bleeds into the MRU squad.

“We also know lots of people on the Calgary teams because we’ve played with them in the past. That just adds a whole other layer of excitement to it.”

Another Huskie returning to her old stomping grounds is third-year forward Nicole Fry. The Calgary native said this weekend is as big as any the team has faced so far this season and the crowd they are excepting will definitely help in their success.

“This weekend is huge for us, we have the chance to finish first, halfway through the season,” said Fry. “It’s funny because a lot of us were saying that we might have fans that come from our side than there are from Saskatoon. It should be a good crowd tonight that should add to the energy that we’ll definitely need.”

Fry also mentioned because of how COVID-19 has affected these two seasons, this will be their only trip down to Flames Country, which means not taking it for granted.

“I’m grateful for the fact that there are two teams here in Calgary. In a normal year, if COVID wasn’t a thing, we come down here twice, which is great. Because this is our only trip, we’ll have to make the most of it here this weekend.”

And for third-year forward Kara Kondrat who, like Brown, is from the surrounding area as she hails from Cochrane about 30 minutes west of the big city, she has extra playing experience against Calgary teams and has brought a sense of rivalry with her, which can be passed on throughout the rest of the Huskies.

“For me, it’s always been a rivalry because I grew up playing Rocky Mountain Raiders, which was the surrounding area of Calgary,” said Kondrat. “It was kind of like that Battle of Alberta feeling and we always went neck and neck with them. It’s always been a battle and now, coming back with the Huskies, it kind of gives the same energy.”

Kondrat also preached confidence throughout her squad, heading into this matchup, something home away from home feeling might feed into and something going into the holiday might fuel.

“I feel like this is a really big test for us this weekend, especially it being our last weekend before Christmas break. We started with a very young team — and obviously we still are — but we’re starting to get a few things clicking, and overall I feel like we’re coming into this weekend pretty poised.”

“I honestly think we can come in with two wins but that will come down to playing our Huskie game. Ending the first half with a bang is what we’re hoping for, so I think if we just stick to the little things and don’t try to exceed ourselves, we’ll stick to our game.”

The other four Huskies included in the hometown heroes are McKenna Bolger, Meg and Mallory Dyer, as well as Holly Angus who is not on the Huskies lineup for the trip.

The Huskies and Cougars play Friday and Saturday at the Flames Community Arenas. Puck drops at 8 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.

You can listen to all live and archived Huskies women’s hockey broadcasts on the HuskieFAN app and at huskiefan.ca, as Daniella Ponticelli will have the call.

–

Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8