OTTAWA (CIS) – University of Alberta forward Lindsay McAlpine is the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women’s hockey player of the year for the 2006-07 season.
A native of Edmonton, McAlpine is the third member of the five-time national champion Pandas to receive the Brodrick Trophy since women’s hockey became a CIS sport in 1997-98. CIS all-time leading scorer Danielle Bourgeois was a two-time recipient (2004-05, 2003-04), while Lori Shupak was honoured once (2001-02).
Other major award winners announced on Thursday night during the All-Canadian Awards Banquet were McGill’s Catherine Ward (Montreal), who claimed rookie-of-the-year honours, Moncton’s Rhéal Bordage, named coach of the year, and Alberta’s Taryn Barry (Edmonton), who received the Marion Hillard Award recognizing outstanding achievement in hockey, academics and community involvement.
McAlpine, a five-foot-eight centre, led the nation in goals and points in her fifth and final year of eligibility tallying 27 markers and 30 assists in 24 conference games to edge linemate Tarin Podloski by seven points in the CIS scoring race. The 23-year-old education student struck 16 times on the power play and registered three hat-tricks during the regular season while finishing with a staggering +33.
A winner of three national titles in four years at Alberta, McAlpine combined with Podloski (19-31-50) and Jenna Barber (20-20-40) to form the most prolific line in the country with all three forwards finishing in the top five in CIS scoring, leading the Pandas to a 20-3-0-0 conference record and their ninth Canada West banner in 10 years.
Earlier in her varsity career, the 2005-06 Academic All-Canadian overcame Addison’s Disease, an auto immune disease that causes adrenal glands to shut down.
“Lindsay epitomizes the Pandas Hockey Program,” said Alberta 10-year head coach Howie Draper. “Her work ethic is outstanding, she simply refuses to allow her opponents or any other obstacle that life may bring to impede her progress toward the achievement of her goals and she never stops trying to improve herself in sport, school and life.”
“What people outside of our program don’t see is that she is a tremendous leader off the ice as well,” continued Draper. “She would never ask of her teammates something that she would be unprepared to do herself and would stand in front of a train for each and every one of them. That is the kind of person and player that Lindsay is, and this is what makes her very deserving of the award that has been bestowed upon her.”
Ward, a five-foot-six rearguard, is the first Martlet to earn CIS rookie-of-the-year honours since the inception of the award in 2000-01. The management student set new McGill single-season marks for most goals, assists and points in her varsity debut, finishing second among CIS defencemen with 22 points despite playing in only 16 conference games (5-17-22) and setting a new Quebec league single-season record for points by a rearguard.
Selected to the first All-Canadian team, Ward, who turned 20 on Feb. 27, played for the Canadian under-22 team on two occasions in recent months, capturing the European Air Canada Cup in Ravensburg, Germany, in January, and winning a three-game exhibition series against the USA in Ottawa, in August.
In only his second season at the helm at Moncton, Bordage operated one of the most spectacular turnarounds in CIS history, transforming a 1-20 team into an 18-3 squad and leading his troops to the first national ranking, the first AUS title and the first CIS championship berth in program history.
Barry becomes the first member of the storied Pandas hockey program to win the Marion Hillard Award. A fourth-year physical education student, she was an Academic All-Canadian in 2004-05 and 2005-06 and, in the last year alone, has served as a volunteer coordinator or volunteer for “Tobacco Free Kids”, United Way “Coats for Kids” program, Christmas Bureau of Edmonton, Canadian Blood Services and “Basketball for Tuition.”
A member of two national championship teams at Alberta, the left-winger placed fourth in the Canada West and 12th in the country in scoring this season with 11-19-30.
“Taryn has been an inspiration to both the players and the staff of the Pandas Hockey program,” said Draper. “She has provided a remarkable model of what can be accomplished when someone sacrifices time, money and personal accolades to make our program, school and city a better place to be.”
“Taryn’s vision mobilized the entire Pandas Hockey program to increase its activity level in the community,” added the 2001-02 CIS coach of the year. “She is another one of many strong leaders on our team who displays excellence in the classroom and on the ice, but she really has taken the community service part of that equation to another level.”
The 2007 CIS women’s hockey championship, hosted by the University of Ottawa, gets under way on Friday with a pair of round-robin match-ups. Top-seeded McGill opens the tournament against No. 6 Manitoba at 4 p.m., while the host and fifth-ranked Gee-Gees battle No. 2 Laurier at 7:30 p.m.

Awards
Tissot - Player of the year (Brodrick Trophy): Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta
Rookie of the year: Catherine Ward, McGill
Coach of the year: Rhéal Bordage, Moncton
Marion Hillard Award: Taryn Barry, Alberta

Canada West All-Canadians
First Team
Forward: Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta
Second Team
Defence: Rayanne Reeve, Alberta
Forward: Tarin Podloski, Alberta
All-Rookie Team
Goalie: Melinda Choy, UBC