After a frustrating 2-1 loss last week, left winger Emily West met in the locker room with her Pine Creek teammates before changing clothes in the janitor’s closet at Sertich Ice Center in Colorado Springs.
She emerged looking like any smiling high school senior. Her semi-secret identity as one of the top female hockey prospects the state has produced remained safe, but that is not likely to last much longer.
While it’s no longer an uncommon sight for girls and boys to be playing on a hockey team in Colorado, the fact West skates on the Eagles’ top line and has four goals and nine assists through 14 games this season should raise a few eyebrows.
As should the fact that West was the first recruit to sign this season with the No. 8-ranked Minnesota women’s team. And she was one of five high school players in the nation invited to the U.S. women’s national team camp at Lake Placid, N.Y.
Yes, Al Michaels, this girl believes in miracles. And hers continue to unfold.
“You take everything you have and put it in perspective,” West said of playing with the national team. “No matter which it is, your first or last game to play, you never know when a chance like that is going to happen.”
Barring the unforeseen, there will be more and more chances for this 5-foot-5, 145-pound honor student, who has a flair for science and a soft spot for Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin, to shine on the ice.
Butterflies disappear
Lake Placid had always been a special place for West during her summer visits, but this past December, the winter somehow made it feel more hallowed. Riding the bus to the camp where she would join 42 of the nation’s top players, West felt a rare case of nerves.
But they wouldn’t last long.
“Once you’re there, it’s easy to play with those caliber of players,” she said. “The Olympic and college girls put the pucks on your stick and hope you do, too.”
At the weeklong camp, West validated to herself and others that she belonged. Odds are West will be part of the under-19 team or under-22 team in August. They are scheduled to play a three-game series against Canada, with additional games possible against Finland and Sweden.
How West graded at the national team camp is under wraps, but her talent and potential, and the relatively young age of the current women’s national team, have her in prime position for one day earning her shot at the Olympics.
“She’s the complete package,” said Michele Amidon, director of women’s hockey operations for USA Hockey. “Emily has good size, is in pretty good shape for her age, she’s got good hockey sense, she sees the ice well and has good puck control.
“She could develop into one of those top players.”
If so, she would follow in the steps of former Minnesota stars. A mural at Minnesota’s Ridder Arena has five larger-than-life pictures of Golden Gophers who became Olympians.
And if the facilities aren’t enough of a lure to potential recruits – the first in the country dedicated solely to women’s collegiate hockey – coach Laura Halldorson finds those silent figures on the wall speak volumes. The possibility of West joining them is why Halldorson put so much effort into signing her.
West’s athleticism, 4.1 grade- point average and winning personality make her “exactly what we are looking for in a student-athlete,” said Halldorson, a Princeton graduate who has led the Gophers to three national championships. “What I always think of when I think of Emily West is her on-ice personality versus her off-ice personality. She plays with an edge. She’s gritty and she’s tough and she’s a little bit in your face on the ice.”
Halldorson watched West play many times with the Colorado Select girls club team, where West’s career highlight is scoring a hat trick in a 3-2 victory over the Wisconsin Wild in the quarterfinals of last year’s national tournament. Considering the depth of talent of female prep players in Minnesota, Halldorson said her staff doesn’t often look outside the state for recruits.
The Colorado High School Activities Association estimates that around a dozen girls participate on coed teams in the state each season, with 25 schools fielding teams this year.
“In Colorado, she’s the best,” Pine Creek teammate Hannah Prochnow said. “I’m from Minnesota, and she’s one of the best players I’ve seen.”
Cost of hockey: one tooth
West grew up like any other young girl. Her mother, Janet, remembers the tiny dresses, the pink outfits and curls in her hair. She remembers getting braces for Emily so her little angel’s smile would be perfect. Hockey eventually claimed one of Emily’s front teeth, however.
“Those things are really hard because this was my little girl who was going to be in the perfect little girl image,” Janet said. “That tooth was perfect.”
Emily’s brother, Matt, had the most influence in leading her to the ice. Nine years her elder, he remembers strapping pillows to her legs and firing pucks at her, which might explain why Emily began playing goalie. They blasted shots off the garage door before Matt went off to a boarding school outside Chicago.
“I think she had a good vision at an early age for the game,” he said.
The age difference and his schooling prevented some of the typical sibling interaction. Now back in the area working as a stockbroker, Matt watches Emily play with a sense of pride. And he knows his days of outskating her are numbered.
During that 2-1 Pine Creek loss last week, Emily showed off her speed and passing while assisting on the tying goal. After scooping up the loose puck, she blazed through the neutral zone to create a 2-on-1 break.
“She’s a real fast skater and real good with the puck,” first-line Pine Creek teammate Andrew Lapham said. “She’s not a puck hog. She’ll set you up well, but she can also stick it in.”
Pine Creek coach Ken Martel said he sees West as an athlete, not a girl on a predominantly boys team. He, too, praises her rink vision and said her stick strength and skills are better than those of many of her male teammates.
“What goes on between her ears is better than the boys she plays against,” said Martel, who works with USA Hockey’s youth development and has coached at Michigan Tech and St. Cloud State (Minn.).
And what about getting roughed up by the boys on the ice? Mom looks away when watching Emily’s games. Dad said he has gotten used to it. Martel said his players remember those opponents’ numbers for payback.
What does Emily think? She just laughs. Just as she does when boys make vulgar comments to her on the ice, or when she recounts the two concussions she has suffered from hits – by girls.
“If I wasn’t playing hockey, I don’t know what I’d do,” Emily said. “I love it to death.”
Emily West
Age: 17
School: Senior at Pine Creek High School
Position: Left wing
Stats: Four goals, nine assists in 14 games this season
College choice: Signed early with No. 8 Minnesota
Olympic hopes: One of five high school players in the country invited to the U.S. women’s national team camp in December at Lake Placid, N.Y.
