EDMONTON - Canada West announces the 2007 women’s hockey individual major award winners and All-Stars, as selected by head coaches across the conference.
CIS scoring leader and Canada West First Team All-Star Lindsay McAlpine from the University of Alberta has been named Player of the Year. The fifth-year forward recorded personal bests in goals (27), assists (30) and points (57), while leading the Pandas to a 21-3 season record. McAlpine, an alternate captain, has been overshadowed by other big-name U of A stars in recent years, and has overcome injury and the onset of Addison’s disease to become one of the top women’s hockey players in CIS.
“Lindsay epitomizes the Pandas Hockey program. 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,” said Howie Draper, 10-year head coach at Alberta. “What people outside of our program do not see is that she is a tremendous leader off of the ice as well. She manages to find a positive balance between showing compassion for her teammates while ‘telling them like it is’ when they need to hear it most. She would never ask of her teammates something that she would be unprepared to do herself.”
UBC Thunderbirds starting goaltender Melinda Choy is the Rookie of the Year. The Victoria native came to UBC from the South Vancouver Island Breakers and was a key part of the T-Birds’ first post-season appearance since 2001, playing more than 1,000 minutes, posting a goals against average of 3.02 and a save percentage of .912, second-best in the conference. Choy was named Canada West and CIS female Athlete of the Week after back-to-back shutouts of Manitoba on Nov. 17 and 18.
“Melinda was an outstanding contributor for us,” said T-Birds head coach Dave Newson. “She was thrust into a starting role and really stepped up and proved that she’s going to be our go-to goalie for a long time. She is always very well prepared, focused every game and brings a tremendous mental composure and a competitive spirit to go with her technical skill.”
Marion Hilliard Award nominee Taryn Barry exemplifies leadership and team spirit, while setting high academic standards and maintaining involvement in the community.
Barry, a 23-year-old left-winger out of St. Francis Xavier High School in Edmonton, garnered 30 points over 24 conference games and is on pace to be an Academic All-Canadian for the second straight year.
“Taryn has been an inspiration to both the players and the staff of the program,” said Coach 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 did not stop at getting involved in the volunteer opportunities herself, her vision mobilized the entire Pandas Hockey program to increase it’s activity level in the community which had a much farther reaching impact. Taryn is another one of many strong leaders on the Pandas Hockey 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.”
Third-year Manitoba head coach Jon Rempel is the Coach of the Year after guiding the Bisons to a 15-9-0 Canada West season, a vast improvement over the 7-9-4 record of 2005-06. Rempel and the Bisons had improved offence, defence and overall efficiency, and came back from one-game down to defeat host Regina in a best-of-three semifinal playoff series, qualifying them for the conference final in Edmonton this weekend and earning a trip to the CIS Championship in Ottawa.
Rempel won the same award in 2005 and led the program to its first-ever CIS Nationals, where they won a bronze medal. Manitoba has improved its season point total and qualified for the Canada West final every year since he took over the program.
University of Manitoba Athletic Director Coleen Dufresne said, “This is a well-derived honour for Jon. He has been committed and dedicated to the program and has a great understanding of the game. As the women’s head coach at Manitoba, he his has grown the program tremendously under his leadership and I am thrilled that his coaching has been duly rewarded.”

Following is a breakdown of all individual award winners and All-Stars:

Awards
Player of the Year: Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta
Rookie of the Year: Melinda Choy, UBC
Marion Hilliard Award nominee: Taryn Barry, Alberta
Coach of the Year: Jon Rempel, Manitoba

All-Stars
First Team
F: Lindsay McAlpine, Alberta
F: Tarin Podloski, Alberta
F: Karissa Swan, Regina
D: Rayanne Reeve, Alberta
D: Chelsa Heywood, Regina
G: Stacey Corfield, Manitoba
Second Team
F: Leanne Kisil, Manitoba
F: Jenna Barber, Alberta
F: Emily McGrath-Agg, UBC
D: Jaclyn Van Deynze, Manitoba
D: Brenna Leary, Manitoba
G: Jackie Simonot, Regina

Major award winners will automatically become finalists for national awards, to be handed out by Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) at the national championship, hosted by the University of Ottawa, March 16-19.
This weekend Alberta hosts the Manitoba Bisons in a re-match of the 2007 Canada West final, won 2-0 by the Pandas in a best-of-three series at Edmonton.