Unlike most animals, whales are conscious breathers. All mammals sleep, but whales cannot afford to become unconscious for long because they may drown. It is thought that only one hemisphere of the whale's brain sleeps at a time, so they rest but are never completely asleep.
On the Whalers women hockey team season opener a week ago, they failed to display the behaviour of the whales, intermittently going into some deep sleep. But on their second outing this weekend, the Ecofish Research Ltd. Whalers displayed an attitude and behaviour worth talking about. Given a few minutes at the beginning of the game to warm up, the Whalers took on the Nanaimo intermediate team head on.
Newly appointed coach Gary Kremsater joined the team behind the bench for the first time after a two-year break from coaching. Experienced at the Junior A and B level, Kremsater was pleasantly surprised by the speed of the game. "It was nice to be back in the thick of things and get my blood flowing. The effort put out by the players was exciting to see and I was very impressed with the positioning of the players on the ice. "
The Whalers went down 1-0 early on but this score was not to remain for very long. Kelly Roloff was quick to set up Josée Bureau (Flip Flop Shops Woodgrove Centre) who released a quick shot from the slot then deflected her own rebound off one of the Nanaimo defenders. Jen Novelli made it 2-1 with a well executed back hand shot. Melissa Dekker increased the lead with a perfectly placed wrist shot assisted by Kelly Godard.
The Whalers had to kill a couple penalties when Godard got caught with her fishing rod hooking the same player twice but the team was able to surmount the challenge.
Haley Fraser (Brian McLean) took in on herself to beat the goalie on a breakaway, followed by Allison Abraham (Avril Homes) who surprised the Nanaimo goalie with a beauty shot from the point.
Bureau had an easy tap-in from a stunning pass from winger Lindsay Neufeld. Novelli wrapped up the scoring with her second to conclude the final score of 7-1 for the home team.
ICE CHIPS The Whalers thank their main sponsor Ecofish Research Ltd. for supporting them again this year ... they would also like extend their thanks to Avril Homes for supplying a new set of jerseys ... for more information on the Whalers' schedule or how to join this fun team, visit the blog at http://courtenaywhalers.wordpress.com/ or join their Facebook page ...
– Ecofish Whalers