A decorated hockey career, highlighted by two Olympic gold medals, started in St. Albert for Team Canada defenceman Meaghan Mikkelson.
The first female to play rep boys’ hockey in St. Albert with the 1997 atom AA provincial champion TD Lightning would go on to crack the bantam AAA roster of the Sabres as a forward, win back-to-back NCAA championships with the Wisconsin Badgers and the national team member since 2007 will now compete in her sixth IIHF worlds with Canada, starting March 28 in Kamloops.
The 2012 world champion, four-time silver medallist and the top defenceman at the 2011 tournament will also play for the Calgary Inferno against Les Canadiennes for the Clarkson Cup in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League on Sunday in Ottawa.
Mikkelson, 31, looked back fondly on her St. Albert hockey roots as the guest of honour on the Sportsnet pre-game show Sunday afternoon, broadcast live from the mobile broadcast studio parked on St. Anne Street, during the Rogers Hometown Hockey Tour stop in the community.
The second-place finisher with Team Canada teammate Natalie Spooner on the Amazing Race Canada – Season 2 was gracious with her media availability prior to the pre-game show and the Gazette was allowed some interview time in the makeup room inside the spiffy broadcast studio, while Mikkelson’s husband, Scott Reid, their newborn son, Calder, and her parents, Bill and Betsy, hung out with co-hosts Ron MacLean and Tara Slone.
What’s it like to be part of the Hometown Hockey tour stop in your hometown?
Mikkelson: “It’s really exciting obviously. I haven’t been able to come home too much lately, just because we’ve been so busy so I was really excited when I was asked. (Mikkelson’s family) live up the hill from where all the festivities are going on so we walked down here and got to enjoy it a little bit and we’re having a lot of fun with it so far.”
It must be pretty cool to share your hometown story with the rest of Canada at an event like this.
Mikkelson: “I have so many great memories from growing up here at home playing hockey in St. Albert and to be able to come back and sort of represent that is a huge honour.
“When I was asked and they told me who else was going to be on the same day it was pretty humbling obviously with Mark Messier and Ryan Smyth and Lanny McDonald and to be in their company. I was a little bit surprised that they wanted me here as well, but obviously it’s a huge honour as well.”
How exciting is it to play at worlds again with Team Canada, especially after the birth of Calder?
Mikkelson: “I had Calder at the end of September and I wasn’t really sure what my timeline was going to be like for coming back. I kind of just took it one day at a time, one step at a time.
“I was cleared for full competition just on Dec. 27 and I attended the national team camp in Toronto at the end of January and then I was fortunate enough to be selected for the team when they announced it last week.
“The world championship in Canada is obviously extremely exciting and getting to go to a world championship in Canada and represent Canada with my six-month-old son and my husband and all of my family is probably going to be one of the most special tournaments of my career so I’m really, really excited.”
Was it difficult to get back into hockey after the pregnancy?
Mikkelson: “No. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how quickly I kind of bounced back from everything. I really placed an emphasis during my pregnancy on staying fit and staying healthy and I was in the gym the day I went into labour and I think that made a real big difference in terms of coming back and getting back into the swing of things but when you play the game for so long and you step away for a little bit and you come back it doesn’t take quite as long as some people may think.
“I actually coached last year (with the Inferno) so it kind of gave me a different perspective on things and I think it actually helped my game as well.
“It has been tough in the sense that I have a lot of things to juggle right now but I have a lot of support and a lot of help. I’m very fortunate in that respect so it’s been a learning experience as well as a challenge.”
The Twitter campaign to name your son, Calder, how did that happen?
Mikkelson: “It kind of stemmed from when you find out when you’re pregnant and you find out whether you’re having a boy or a girl. You kind of sit around with your family and friends and you talk about names and you ask everyone for name suggestions and a close friend suggested that why not reach out to all of Canada and ask them for their help so it kind of stemmed from that.
“What we did was initially we asked people to send in whatever names they thought and we actually ended up getting hundreds and hundreds of names that we had to pick from and so we picked the top eight and then we put them into a hockey style bracket. There were quarter-finals, semifinals and finals and each week one name would face-off against the other. You would re-tweet for one name in favour of the other and whichever name had the most votes would move on.
“It was a little bit scary and a little bit stressful because it was completely out of our control but I honestly don’t think that we would have found his name without having done that. Calder wasn’t even a name that was kind of in the mix of names that we had thought of.
“It also has that hockey connection and a bit of a family tie as well with my dad (Bill) winning the Calder Cup and my great uncle (Jim McFadden) won the Calder Trophy on Detroit so it’s a perfect name for him but we wouldn’t have found it without doing that crazy Twitter campaign.”
