Jefferson Hagen, MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Famous in the pantheon of MacEwan women's hockey for twice scoring clutch overtime goals that delivered championships to the program – including last March against NAIT – Morgan Casson is about to gain more notoriety.
The fifth-year forward from Edmonton has been named the team's latest captain.
She's taking the torch from graduate Nikki Reimer and will lead the Griffins into their regular-season opener on Friday at NAIT (7 p.m.) and their home opener Saturday vs. NAIT (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena).
"It's a huge honour to know that your team views you in that light," said Casson. "It definitely means a lot. Nikki did a great job of setting the tone and culture that we were a competitive, hard-working group that puts the team before ourselves. I'd really like to carry that on."
By all accounts, she's already a big reason why that culture exists. To head coach Lindsay McAlpine, Casson is the latest in a long line of leaders who've always had intangibles you can't teach.
"Our leaders in the past, countless years now – probably since (I started) – have exemplified every intangible that we continue to talk about off the ice and Morgan is exactly that," said McAlpine. "She's someone who comes to the rink, to the gym, to a community event and she's someone who's fully bought in. Her work ethic is amongst the best on our team, if not in our league.
"Now that we've played some Canada West teams, she was also amongst the best there. Morgan does everything the right way. She leads by example. The best thing so far we've seen in Morgan this year is she's finding her voice and her confidence in taking her lead-by-example (attitude) to vocalize her expectations to her teammates."
Those expectations will be high again for a Griffins team that's won three-straight Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championships and can become the first team in conference history to four-peat. It would be an incredible way for the Griffins to go out on top in their final ACAC season before moving into Canada West in 2020-21.
"It's definitely in the back of our minds, but Lindsay made a comment after our last preseason game that we tend to focus on the wins and losses when we're playing ACAC teams and we need to start focusing more on the process," said Casson. "The details have been getting lost along the way, so I think that's going to be a bigger focus for us this year. When we focus on the little aspects of the game, that will complete the picture because that will be big going into (U SPORTS)."
If there's a player on the Griffins who can most lead by example in that department, it's Casson, who prides herself in sound defensive assignments as much as scoring clutch goals. Her leadership would seem to be tailor-made for a veteran Griffins team, which includes 20 returning players. They've lost a few players to graduation, but a strong rookie crop is ready to fill some shoes, too.
Morgan Casson, left, is taking the captain's torch from Nikki Reimer, right, as the Griffins aim for a fourth-straight ACAC Championship (Len Joudrey photo).
"I think we're fitting in together really well," said Casson. "We've had a lot of people step into new, bigger roles than what they're used to, but I think everyone's done a really great job of doing that. Everyone's risen to the occasion.
"I think our powerplay's changed the most this year," she added. "We've lost some really great players – Nikki, Domi (Scheurer), Raven (Beazer) – but I think other players have stepped up and are going to fill that role well."
MacEwan's opening matchup against NAIT is a perfect script to kick off the campaign. Not only did they beat the Ooks in the 2018-19 final last March, the rivalry between the two institutions separated by two LRT stops has seemingly built since the beginning of time. Prior to Saturday's puck drop, the Griffins will unveil their latest championship banner and receive their championship rings.
"I can't think of a better way to start our last season in the ACAC," said McAlpine. "We get a banner raising and get to celebrate our championship against the team that we were fortunate enough to beat last year.
"They're going to give us a great challenge whether it's the first weekend or the last weekend. You'll see the emotion from the outset."
