Olympic stars play for NWHL Griffins

Olympic stars play for the NWHL Griffins
By Dan Hilborn, Burnaby NOW assistant editor
Published Nov. 10, 2002

The crowds may still be small but hockey history is being played out in New Westminster's Queens Park Arena this winter.
The Vancouver Griffins, the Lower Mainland's first professional women's hockey team, are turning heads in their first full season in the National Women's Hockey League.
The team has big names and big hopes.
Nancy Drolet of Canada's gold-medal-winning Olympic women's hockey team is on board, as is former Team U.S.A. captain Cammi Granato. The Griffins' roster also boasts some of the most promising young female hockey players in the country, such as Burnaby's own 18- year-old Natashia Pellatt.
With a winning 5-4 record, the Griffins are now hoping to work their way up the standings - both on the score sheet, and in the hearts of their future fans.
"We're well on our way," said team owner and recent B.C. Sports Hall of Fame inductee Diane Nelson. "The addition of a western conference has sparked a lot of interest in professional women's hockey, and now we're truly a national league."
Last weekend, the Griffins proved they're coming ready to play with three solid back-to-back victories over Canadian Olympic team captain Hayley Wickenheiser and her Edmonton Chimo club.
This is is the first year the NWHL has had a western division, and Nelson said her biggest hurdle is simply letting people know that her team is here, and that they play a high calibre of hockey.
"Our biggest goal this season is awareness," Nelson said. "If we can bring the fans out to the arenas, that will give us the financial support to continue moving forward.
"We have the product, we know that. We just need the fans. And once the people come, they are pleasantly surprised."
Last weekend, about 200 fans paid the $8 admission fee (kids under 12 get in free) to watch the Griffins play its own brand of fast-paced hockey.
Coach Nancy Wilson said the strength of her Olympic team players is filtering down to some of the younger members of the squad, such as 15-year-old Courtney Unrah, who had the first shot on goal in last Sunday's 7-1 trouncing of the Chimo.
"There's a good feeling in the dressing room," said Wilson, a certified level IV master coach and former assistant with the national women's under-22 squad. "Every time we step on the ice we get stronger. We have a long bench and good goaltending, and I know we can be successful."
Of course, for the team to do well, the Olympic level players will have to continue playing the way they did last Sunday when Drolet had a hat trick and Granato scored the other four goals against Edmonton.
Drolet, who played in the eastern-based NWHL for almost 15 years before its expansion west last season, said she feels an obligation to pass her experience onto the new crop of young players.
"This becomes the next step for young female players," said the 29-year-old forward. "The boys will dream of playing for the Canucks, and the girls will dream of playing for the Griffins."
Those sentiments are echoed by Granato, captain of the silver medallist U.S. Team in the 2002 Olympics.
"It's a lot of fun," said Granato. "I like the whole organization because I get a lot of ice time, and everyone is really friendly. We all push each other and make each other better."
And the young players are the beneficiary of all that talent in the dressing room.
Natashia Pellatt, an 18-year-old graduate of Moscrop secondary, is one of the first beneficiaries of all that female talent.
A long-time Lower Mainland hockey player, Pellatt was forced to play on boys team while she was growing up, simply because there were no girls' teams of a high enough calibre to keep her interested. Some years, the growing teenager had to play with senior AA women's teams, against players more than twice her age.
"This year, the play has improved tremendously," said the five- foot-five, 130 lb forward. ""This year we have Olympians on the team and it's just crazy in the locker room."
Like most of the women who suit up for the Griffins, Pellatt believes that women will one day play in the NHL.