It was the trip of a lifetime for thirty-four players in the Manitoba Women's Junior Hockey League, the opportunity to play other teams in Finland and Sweden. The young women left on their European adventure Boxing Day, and returned home Wednesday and Thursday last week.

The experience was spearheaded by League President Kirk Kuppers about a year and a half ago when the league was looking to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

"It was looking for that out-of-the-ordinary thing to provide opportunity and excitement, draw some attention to junior women's hockey."

Kuppers explains a letter was sent to each current and former player within the league, describing the plan and inviting them to register. "We didn't want to deny anybody." He says within two to three weeks thirty-six players had submitted the required $500 deposit. At this point two teams were formed - Team Winnipeg and Team Manitoba.

The two teams left for Europe on Boxing Day, arriving in Stockholm first. Kuppers says both Team Winnipeg and Team Manitoba had one practice and played two games a piece. Then on December 30th the players caught a cruise to Helsinki where they watched a Team Canada game at the World Junior Men's Hockey tournament. To wrap up the trip, each team played another two games against club teams in Helsinki.

We asked Kuppers to describe the level of competition that Team Winnipeg and Team Manitoba faced in each of their four games. "Comparable, very comparable."

As for whether the league would do something like this again, Kuppers says he's already been in contact with his counterparts in other countries discussing the idea of hosting some sort of world female championship.

mwjhl3 sandra murner
Submitted by Sandra Murner