Merlis Belsher Place will be home to the 2024 U Sports women's hockey championship. It's the first time Saskatoon will host the national tournament. (Daniella Ponticelli/HuskieFAN)

By Daniella Ponticelli

First time for Saskatoon

University of Saskatchewan to host 2024 U Sports women’s hockey championship

Jan 12, 2023 | 4:47 PM

Two seasons after winning their first national medal, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s team will have a berth to the 2024 U Sports championship hosted in their hometown.

U Sports officially announced Saskatoon as the host city next season with Waterloo, Ont. winning the bid for 2025.

It’s a first for the Saskatchewan city and a major showcase for Merlis Belsher Place, which opened in 2018.

“It’s something we’ve been trying to get since we opened the building …the facility, the dressing rooms and everything that we have is ideally suited for it,” Huskies women’s head coach Steve Kook said Thursday.

On a practical front, the best university women’s hockey teams will have access to two dedicated dressing rooms, cordoned off from the public, along with access to a hotel on site and many nearby.

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Merlis Belsher Place has room for up to 2,700 fans, with ample parking and concessions.

Kook has attended numerous national championships, coaching the Huskies at three: Fredicton, NB in 2013-14 (third place), London, Ont. in 2017-18 (fourth place) and Charlottetown, PEI in 2021-22, where the team won its second national bronze.

He said the best tournaments have always been in communities the size of Saskatoon.

“I’m excited to see how the community rallies around it … the looks on young players’ faces when they see the best in Canada,” he said.

“It’ll also be that more advantageous for us when we step out on the ice and it’s just green and white everywhere in the stands.”

Saskatoon is touted for its female hockey development, with the Huskies women’s hockey program being a home for many great players at the university level.

In 2021-22, the U of S Huskies became the first women’s hockey program, at any level, in North America to have a full season broadcast on a private broadcaster, Pattison Media, through HuskieFAN.

Both Saskatoon and Waterloo will use the theme “See Them, Be Them” for their respective national events, showing female role models in the community with a showcase on empowerment through sports.

“There’s an incredible women’s hockey community here in Saskatoon and we intend to integrate them into the entire experience,” said Shannon Chinn, chief athletics officer at the U of S.

Kook noted hosting championships, which earns the team a berth into the tournament, is also a great boon for recruiting to Saskatoon.

“We certainly hope we can just keep building off that — whether we’re hosting or whether we’re going,” he said, adding the team will still be chasing a Canada West title ahead of welcoming the nation’s best.

“That’s first and foremost. It’s always been our program goal to get that,” he said.

Still, the excitement of securing a spot in next year’s national tournament rippled through the current Huskies team Thursday.

Fourth-year Kenzie Lausberg said she looks forward to capping off her final U Sports hockey season with the honour.

“We’ve got a great team, a great facility, great coaches. And I think it’ll all come together for an unreal experience before we finish our careers,” Lausberg said.

The 2023 U Sports women’s hockey championship is slated for March 16-19 in Montreal, Que.

The top six teams in Canada West head into the postseason, with the conference finalists earning their spots at the eight-team national tournament.

The 2022-23 Huskies are currently fourth in the Canada West standings, which is good enough for a home quarter-final series Feb. 17-19 if they can maintain.

Saskatchewan’s women take on conference frontrunners the UBC Thunderbirds in Vancouver Friday at 9 p.m. CST and Saturday at 5 p.m. CST. Catch all the action live and archived on the HuskieFAN app and at huskiefan.ca.

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daniella.ponticelli@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @dponticelliTV