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On a team of hockey clones — small, speedy forwards — Kara Kondrat sets herself apart on the University of Saskatchewan Huskies with her nearly 5-foot-10 frame.
Not only does Kondrat give her squad some much needed size, she has a history of scoring clutch goals for the Huskies.
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“We’re smaller, quicker,” admits U of S head coach Steve Kook, whose team will play host to the 2024 U Sports women’s hockey national championship tournament this week at Merlis Belsher Place.
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“Kara gives us some presence in front of the net. She’s good with the puck and she finds the back of the net. She does get timely goals for us. That’s the thing that (assistant coach) Brian McGregor, mostly, has been in her ear for the whole year — like, just drive to the net. You’ve got such a reach on you. Make it hard for them to play you. Either you’re going to get to the net, get your spot or draw a penalty.
“Just get going.”
The Huskies will look for Kondrat and others to get going Thursday night, when No. 8-seeded Saskatchewan takes on No. 1-ranked Concordia Stingers in national championship quarterfinal action. The puck drops at 7 p.m. at Merlis Belsher Place.
Kondrat has recorded six goals and 13 assists for 19 points in 30 games during her fifth and final season with the Huskies.
Kondrat, along with linemates Mallory Dyer and Kelsey Hall, have 25 goals between them. Eight of them were game-winners.
The Huskies want Kondrat to make a bee-line to the net in a big way and want her linemates to look for her.
“It’s one of them who came in and said, ‘Do you know we represent 53 per cent of our goals?’” noted Kook. “That’s what their job is. They’re supposed to score. I don’t expect them to be great in our defensive zone — I hope they are because they’re older players — but I expect them to be awesome in the offensive zone.”
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Kondrat says she wouldn’t want to finish her U Sports career any other way than by hosting a national championship.
“It’s definitely a great way to end a career,” says Kondrat, an Arts and Science student from Cochrane, Alta. “It’s crazy that it’s (days) away now and we’re all getting so excited and coming together as a team.
“We just want to get started.”
Kondrat knows that the team is counting on her to score some big goals, but she says she’s not alone in that department.
“I hope that us fifth-years can just show the team,” she says. “There’s a lot of us that have been to nationals already and I think that, having that under our belt, can go far for us. I hope that I can contribute, in big moments, and it feels good to do that but I think we’ve got a lot of depth on our team to do that.”
Two years ago, Saskatchewan claimed the bronze medal at the U Sports national championship after finishing as the Canada West conference runner-up. Now, the Huskies come into nationals as the No. 8 seed and host team after being eliminated in Canada West quarterfinals by the Calgary Dinos.
“That was definitely disappointing and wasn’t the way we wanted to go, for sure, but I also think that lit a fire under us for nationals. Hopefully we can turn that around,” says Kondrat.
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“Coming in as an underdog, we perform really well. I think we play best when we’re an underdog … It’s almost a positive for us. So we’ve got to look at it as that.”
The key to success, she adds, is just sticking to their game and not worrying about anything else.
“I don’t think we should be scared of any team we’re playing,” Kondrat says. “The rankings are made and we’ve just got to control what we can control, regardless of where we’re ranked.”
The Huskies will have their hometown fans behind them in the friendly confines of Merlis Belsher Place.
“That’s huge for us, having all our friends and family in our rink that we know,” sayd Kondrat. “It’s huge for us, being at home.”
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