It’s ‘Play For A Cure’ night
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A Huskie women’s hockey tradition takes on added meaning in 2025. On Friday night, USASK hosts the MacEwan Griffins in the annual “Play For A Cure” game at Merlis Belsher Place. This will be the 17th annual event and this year, funds raised will go to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.
Every year someone in the community is honoured at the event…this year the Huskies will be playing for one of their own. 4th-year defender Brooklyn Stevely was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the fall of 2023. “I would have never expected that at the age of 22 I would hear the “c” word”, she said. “This really opened my eyes up. I now think that some of my tough days before this, weren’t such tough days.” Huskie women’s hockey head coach Steve Kook described it as “unimaginable and something you don’t ever want to go through.”
Stevely, who is from Regina, elected to have surgery in December of 2023 in Saskatoon even though there was an option to be at the Regina Cancer Clinic. “I knew mom and dad would be good highway drivers and I had my whole team behind me here in Saskatoon”, she said. “There’s nobody else I would have wanted to go through this journey with.” Kook wasn’t totally surprised that Stevely elected to be close to her team. “She’s a rink rat”, he said.
Through determination and support from her family, friends and team, Stevely was able to return to the ice for the U SPORTS national women’s hockey championships in Saskatoon in March of 2024. “My dad says a fight makes you a better fighter”, she said. Despite being in her fourth year of eligibility, this will be Stevely’s last year with the team.
