Emma Malsbury from Penhold and Suze Vanderlinde from Spruce View became friends while playing on the Red Deer Sutter Fund Midget AAA women's hockey team.
This year they've taken their game to a whole new level, as both are suiting up for the SAIT Trojans, even living together in a campus dorm suite for their first year of college.
“I'm glad to be rooming with her,” said Vanderlinde, in an interview following classes counting towards her nutrition for healthy lifestyles studies certificate. “We're sharing the same experience, and we can help each other out. It almost makes you not as homesick.”
Vanderlinde started out playing on boys teams in minor hockey until first-year bantam, where she had to tone down her ferocity playing alongside other girls.
“At first it was a huge change,” she said. “I got a lot of penalty minutes.”
It was this drive blended with finesse elements that made the centre stand out to head coach Terry Larson.
“She's one of the top girls speed-wise on the team,” he said. “She can turn on the jets and just fly. She can blow by defencemen.”
In contrast, left-winger Malsbury comes across as a player that sets a solid foundation for her line by sticking to the fundamentals and not getting caught up in fancy stickhandling, he said.
“She knows what she has to do and she gets the job done,” he said. “She's a really dump the puck in and chase after it kind of player.”
Malsbury says a strong forecheck has always been her style.
“I don't like to dick around with the puck,” she said, adding she's enjoying watching as the team comes together. “We're slowly picking up how to read each other on the ice.”
