Women’s Hockey: Patriarchal Priorities Within Sport

Article by Nathan Robichaud

Photo from @SMUWhockey

It is Friday, February 7th, and the Husky Hockey teams have both mined a rich vein of form during their home games of late. The men’s team’s consistency in front of the net ensured that visitors from Acadia would have to scoop the puck out of their net a humiliating nine times, which provided vital points to solidify a third-place finish in the league’s' regular-season table. The women’s team has been even stronger cruising to first place early in the season, where they remained almost untouchable throughout. However, this achievement has perhaps been made sour by how the team was treated just days before their final regular-season game.

On Friday, just a day after #Womeninsportsday, the Saint Mary’s women’s hockey team was not permitted to practice on their home ice; they had to make do and practice at another arena within the city. This incident comes at a time when the girls are coming off a prolific regular season and preparing to capitalize on their form heading into vital postseason matches. The women’s Hockey team is easily one of the more decorated teams at Saint Mary’s, yet they were not permitted to use their facility to practice before the men’s home game.

The fact that the Men’s team was permitted to use the facility when the women’s team was not has led to controversy. The female Huskies took to social media to stand against this treatment. In their post they stood together with jerseys worn inside out so the SMU logo would not be shown. They have received support from different actors on and off-campus. Most notably, the tweet was shared on Instagram by popular Halifax influencer account @Halifaxnoise. On-campus social media support has stemmed from SMUSA, who congratulated them on their victory over UNB on Monday and noted their courage for “standing up for what is right, on and off the ice.” The SMUSA VP of Student Affairs took to their personal social media account and supported the team for standing up to this disrespect, and further acknowledged the team as leaders on campus.

Despite the adversity, the girls won their final game of the season in double overtime, which allowed them to finish top of the table despite tying on points with second-place team Saint Francis Xavier. Saint Mary’s takes first because, according to AUS rules, “Saint Mary's earned more points (5-4) in the standings in head-to-head games (including wins, OT losses and SO losses).” Finishing first also means the girls get direct bypass to the second round of the post-season competition in their quest to be crowned Atlantic University Sports champion yet again.