By Wendy Graves via Hockey Canada

The Notre Dame Hounds made their second straight trip to the Esso Cup in 2011, and after winning four of five preliminary round games and dispatching the Toronto Aeros in the semifinals, found themselves back in the gold medal game.

With just over six minutes to play in the third, the Hounds broke open a tight 2-1 contest against the Edmonton Thunder with two goals in under a minute. The Thunder got one back, but Olivia Howe’s empty-netter – her second point of the game, on Taylor Woods’ tournament-record 12th assist – sealed the deal with 21 seconds remaining. One year after settling for Esso Cup silver, the Hounds were golden.

Lingering disappointment
“Any time you end up second you know what it takes to get back and take that extra step,” says Howe, who was the 2011 tournament’s top forward and top scorer. Ten players who lost the 2010 final to the Thunder Bay Queens returned in 2011. As time had wound down a final scoring chance rang off the crossbar in the one-goal defeat. “It was like we were there in the nick of it and then it was just heartbreak,” says Woods. The team came into the following season determined to play smarter and faster. “We trained to get better overall so we couldn’t feel that feeling again.”

Weight of relief
Fast-forward 12 months and three years of memories flashed through Woods’ mind as she stood at the blue line accepting her new medal. The weight of expectations the team had put on itself had been lifted; in its place came a new, more welcomed weight. “Compared to the silver the gold felt a lot heavier just because of how much we went through.” Getting the trophy, she says, was any young girl’s dream. “You get participation trophies and banners here and there,” she says, “but you never get a huge trophy, that huge physical reward of satisfaction that you do at the Esso Cup.”

With heavy hearts
The entire season the team had drawn on former Hound Mandi Schwartz as a source of inspiration. Schwartz lost her battle with leukemia two weeks before the tournament began. “She was a big part of hockey at Notre Dame,” says Howe, “so we had her family involved in the (dressing room) celebration.”

Time for a cold one
After singing along to their favourite songs in the dressing room, the players continued the party on the bus, a cappella. “We still had a lot of energy,” says Woods. “We could probably have played another game with how much adrenaline we were running off of.” The bus had at least one important destination to reach before the team settled in for the evening. “I remember we went to Dairy Queen and ice cream was on coach,” says Howe, now a junior at Clarkson University.

Home is where the hardware is
Now in her junior season at Cornell University, Woods left her Esso Cup keepsakes with her parents in Manitoba. Her gold medal sits atop her other Notre Dame accomplishments, including a handful of MVP awards. “I want to keep (the medal) in a safe spot, and what’s best is at home where those memories really flow out when I look at them,” says Woods, who, in 2012, added a gold medal at the IIHF Ice Hockey U18 Women’s World Championship to her résumé.

Welcome wagon
As the team’s bus made its way down Main Street in Wilcox, Sask., the players were greeted by red-and-white-decked schoolmates and fans. When the bus came to a stop everyone sang the school song. It was reminiscent of what had happened one year earlier, when the Notre Dame Midget AAA Male team won the TELUS Cup. “I was very proud of them winning, but what’s going through my mind is, I really want this celebration,” says Woods. She got her wish. “It was just very rewarding coming on that bus trip. I wish it lasted longer.”