St. Thomas women’s hockey took on a battle well outside the rink this past week with a fight against breast cancer. Their first annual “Think Pink in the Rink” game took place on their home opener against Université de Moncton after a week of fund-raising. The Tommies have reached the $1,000 mark and took to a pink-highlighted Grant Harvey Centre, donning the colour themselves.
“It’s something that hits pretty close to home with everyone. We really wanted to do something this year, and we were all shocked and still can’t believe how much money we made,” said Cassidy McTaggart, assistant captain for STU. “We’ve done things such as Hailey’s Dreams in the past, and this year we’re going to do something similar. There’s a few people on our team, including our coach, who have been really impacted by breast cancer.”
Though STU was in for a rough afternoon on the scoreboard, they still managed to raise over $500 through the week, and close to $600 more during the game through the STU community, and auctioning off captain Kelty Apperson’s pink jersey, which went for $125. Funds are still being accounted for. STU women’s hockey was auctioned off two months ago for charity by Tony O’Reta, who runs a hockey school for youth players and is a long-time supporter of STU women’s hockey. O’Reta supplied the solid pink hockey jerseys for the Tommies on Saturday. The money raised by STU will be donated on O’Reta’s behalf.
In the 6-1 loss, Kenya Marceline scored the lone goal. McTaggart could only smile and say, “It’s a wake-up call, and I’d rather it happen now as opposed to later.” STU won both games in their opening weekend, won against UPEI on Sunday 2-1 and are set to head to Nova Scotia this coming weekend. Goal scorers for Sunday’s game were Paige MacDonald and Myfanwy Thomson. Goaltender Abby Clarke was player of the game with 29 saves.
