Anakaer and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team begin defence of their 2014 Canada West title on Friday and Saturday night in Vancouver against the UBC Thunderbirds.
“We’re going to see where we’re standing against all the teams,” said Anakaer on the opening weekend. “UBC is going to be a big weekend, we actually knocked them out of playoffs last year, so they’re out for some redemption.
“We definitely want to prove that we’re right where we were last year, hopefully better, and solidify ourselves as the team to beat again.”
Anakaer is entering her fourth season with the Huskies. She had one goal and two assists in 29 games last season.
“I thought I had a pretty good season last year, I’m pretty set in my role on the team,” she said. “This year I would love to score a couple more goals and help the team out that way, but I’m going to just keep doing my job.”
Anakaer’s style fits into the Huskies style perfectly as he said they play a hard, gritty game.
“We try not to do anything too fancy, just work as hard as you can every shift and I definitely am that type of player,” Anakaer said. “We play one of the more team oriented styles, there’s not really a lot of individual mindsets.”
The Huskies were a young team last year that featured eight first-year players, but they were able to find success and Anakaer said they’re now hoping to build off that this season.
“This year’s team is looking pretty good, we only lost a couple players from our team last year, so we’re coming back with a lot of experience,” said Anakaer. “We’re a little bit older, last year almost half the team was in their first year, so it will be nice to have some girls with a little bit more experience.”
The Huskies posted an 18-4-6 record during the regular season and then needed three games in each series to knock off the Thunderbirds and University of Regina Cougars on their way to the CanWest title.
The Huskies would knock off the Laurier Golden Hawks 6-3 in the bronze medal game at the CIS Championship.
“Nobody really knew what to expect going into the season,” said Anakaer. “We felt as though everybody bought into the program and what we were trying to do and obviously the outcome was great.”
Being one of the more experienced players on the roster heading into the past two seasons, Anakaer said she enjoys playing a leadership role on the squad.
“It’s nice to see the new girls coming, they kind of look up to the older girls a little bit and you’ve been there and know exactly what they’re going through,” she said. “It’s tough to balance hockey with university classes as well and just having someone there to talk to definitely helps.”
With a more experienced team and the hunger of getting to the CIS Championship, but falling short, Anakaer expects bigger and better things this year for the Huskies.
“We just need to continually get better everyday,” she said. “The teams that we played last year are going to be better than they were last year. We’re definitely going to need to work hard for every point that we’re going to get.”
The Huskies open their season on Friday night in Vancouver against the UBC Thunderbirds. They meet again on Saturday night to wrap up the opening weekend.
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