GET YOUR PWHL TAKEOVER TICKETS<\/a><\/p>\nCharge Head Coach Carla MacLeod grew up here. Played here. Coached here.<\/p>\n
And with less than a week to go before the Takeover Tour contest at the \u2018Dome, she\u2019s thrilled to be making a quick business trip back.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a rich history in Calgary. It\u2019s my home, where my family and my friends are,\u201d MacLeod explained during a recent media availability. \u201cSo I’m genuinely excited to be able to be a part of a professional women’s hockey game being played in Calgary, knowing it’s such a great hockey market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s such a rich history of women’s hockey within the community. So certainly for me, it’s a privilege to not only be a part of this league, but be a part of this takeover game in Calgary and I’m certainly looking forward to getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that history includes the late Calgary Inferno, who won a pair of Clarkson Cup titles during their eight-year history in the 2010s, as well as their predecessor, the Oval Extreme.<\/p>\n
MacLeod skated for the Oval Extreme before moving on to coach at Mount Royal University, and her current captain in Ottawa – Brianne Jenner – played for the Inferno alongside Toronto forward Blayre Turnbull.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really exciting, being able to come back to Calgary,\u201d Jenner said. \u201cBlayre and I had amazing experiences playing for the Inferno and really, I think I created a lot of my development as a player to those first years out of college playing for that team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we wouldn’t be in a in a spot like this if it weren’t for the evolution that came and what that league meant. So It\u2019ll be really special to come back to Calgary and pay homage to those players and hopefully give them a great hockey game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that’s where I learned how to be a professional athlete,\u201d Sceptres captain Turnbull added. \u201cI owe so much credit to the group of women who pushed me every day to be my best self and be the best athlete that I could be, and it’s gonna be really exciting for a lot of them to be in the crowd\u00a0 watching us play.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to be exciting, too, for two Calgary-area kids to play on the Scotiabank Saddledome stage this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Toronto\u2019s Jessica Kondas and Ottawa\u2019s Sarah Wozniewicz grew up going to Flames games at the \u2018Dome (Kondas says there\u2019s a photo of her and Lanny McDonald somewhere in the family trove).\u00a0<\/p>\n
But being able to share their League – their passion – with a hometown audience clearly means the world to both.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, even just looking at my tickets that I have (from) my teammates, I have about 20 to 30 I stole from them, and I think another 20 paid for, so I feel like I’d be able to look up in the stands and probably know half of the crowd that’s there,\u201d the Calgarian Kondas said. \u201cIt\u2019s just, like, a full circle moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be the closest thing I’ve felt to a real home game, playing in front of people I actually know. I’m super excited to get to Calgary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think it’s gonna be such a cool experience, especially doing it with Carla on the bench,\u201d said Charge forward Wozniewicz, who hails from Cochrane. \u201cShe coached me for four years in Calgary, so all of my friends and family are coming to the game. All my trainers, coaches I’ve had are all coming and it’s just me, such a cool experience to play in front of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my family members have never seen me play since high school. Going to college in the States, games weren’t as accessible for people to watch, so now, everyone’s going to be able to watch, and I think it’s just gonna be such a good experience for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they battle on the ice – and behind the Ottawa bench – those memories of living and playing in Calgary are sure to come back in droves. And so, too, will the memories at the Scotiabank Saddledome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
MacLeod says one of her earliest memories was watching an L.A. Kings team featuring Wayne Gretzky at the \u2018Dome. Kondas\u2019 family had Flames season tickets, and Wozniewicz remembers watching Sidney Crosby and the Penguins battle in Calgary as a kid, too.<\/p>\n
But Wednesday evening, it\u2019s their time to shine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And what better place to strut their stuff than our dear old \u2018Dome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The PWHL Takeover Tour is coming to Calgary. And members of the Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-569560","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}