The Canadian Olympic women’s hockey team were in Jasper last week, fine-tuning their skills and using an exhibition game against a Hinton midget boys team to pay attention to details and prepare for the Olympic Games that start next week.

The women had two practices and a scrimmage with the Jasper midget Bearcats team, as well as a game against the Hinton ‘AA’ McDonald’s All-Stars on Wednesday (Feb. 3), who they beat 14-2 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Jasper Activity Centre.

The women were nearing the end of a series of exhibition games, with Jasper marking the 55th game of the year for the team. Even though the women dominated the game, it was still good for practice, said goalie and team veteran Kim St-Pierre.

“I think tonight was the easiest one we had to play. It’s a week of training, we practiced hard, and today we kind of had a chance to practice a few things, too. But for sure, it’s better when it’s a closer game, but it was good to just play a game instead of always practicing,” St-Pierre said.

The team also had a chance to relax in Jasper, with a day off on Thursday, but St-Pierre said they still trained hard, and took the exhibition game seriously.

To simulate any potential events that could happen at the Olympics, despite the score after three periods the game went into a four-on-four overtime followed by a shoot-out.

After Hinton’s first shooter, Dan Wabason, tried a poorly executed show-off move with a between-the-legs shot, stopped easily by St-Pierre, she made her point by shooting the puck back at him.

“We take that seriously. And then when the guys come, and they are just here for fun only, well, I just wanted to send a message for the other two guys coming up after him. I think they understood what I meant, and it was fun, just like a real competition.”

Much of the play during the game was in Hinton’s zone, as they were out-shot 70-23, which was good for Canada’s confidence, although the women weren’t looking at the score so much as getting as much out of the game as possible in terms of development and preparation for the Olympics.

“I think just the details, making sure that we have good habits, no matter what the score is, no matter who we’re playing, day in and day out, making sure that we’re doing things consistently and we’re doing them consistently well (is what we want to work on),” said team Canada’s Meaghan Mikkelson, who is from St. Albert and familiar to the area from visiting Jasper with her family for vacation.

The women received an Olympic welcome when they arrived at Jasper Park Lodge, with fans greeting them and flags waving.

“Everybody’s been phenomenal, when we arrived at the Lodge, they had an outdoor rink there, people were there with Canadian flags, and just in terms of the service, everybody’s been so friendly no matter where we’ve gone, and for us I think we’re really overwhelmed by how nice everyone’s been,” said Jennifer Botterill. “This week’s been nice. I mean, we’ve been on the ice, but compared to our schedule all year long, this is nice. We come, we have our workouts right after the ice, so it’s only sort of a few hours that we’re working out every day, whereas most of the season, it’s been a pretty full day most days, so we’ve loved it here.”

St-Pierre said she thinks this year’s team is the most prepared out of any women’s team Canada has put together, stating that women’s hockey is getting better year after year. “You look at us right now, four years later, better training, better physically, stronger, quicker and faster. So for sure we’re a better team than four years ago.”

They have a lot of confidence in each other, she said, and have grown as a team a lot on and off the ice. “We are so excited to finally get to the Olympic games, especially playing in front of our own country, I think it’s really, really something that we look forward to.”