I normally save all the women’s hockey chatter in Canada West for Sunday The rundownbut tonight needs its own entry on HBIC because we may have witnessed history tonight. As you know, HBIC will push any article I’m working on to a later date if a goalie goal is scored with video evidence, and it looks like we have one tonight that could be very historic! The woman on the left is Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam, and she was the starter for the Bisons tonight against the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton in Game One of the Canada West quarter-final series. Let me summarize the game again The rundownbut it looks like Shippam is now in the record books!First, let’s get to the video explaining why Shippam may have made history!
Shippam was credited with a goal at 18:55 of the third period after Alberta Pandas forward Hailey Carothers’ shot went off Shippam’s arm, off the boards and across the ice into the empty net to give the Bisons a 4-2 lead in the match and eventually win 5-2. What makes this goal historic is that I can’t find any other records of a Canada West or U SPORTS hockey goalie being credited with a goal of any kind! Emily Shippam may be the first goalkeeper to be credited with a goal in a U SPORTS women’s hockey league!
To give you an idea of how rare this is in U SPORTS hockey, I went all the way back to 2009-2010 to see how many goaltenders had scored in both men’s and women’s hockey. I found three goalies who did well in men’s hockey: Alberta’s Kurtis Mucha scored in 2012-2013, Western’s Lucas Peressini in 2018-2019 and Saskatchewan’s Taran Kozun scored in 2019-2020. The women’s stats for the same period do not exist at all, as they only show the normal goaltending stats rather than including point totals. This makes it look like Emily Shippam is the first goaltender to be credited with a goal!
Since Canada West and U SPORTS have criminally underreported women’s stats for decades, I’m making it official: Manitoba Bisons goaltender Emily Shippam is the first U SPORTS women’s hockey goaltender to record a goal. I’m willing to change this if anyone can find evidence that another goaltender before Shippam got a goal, but this is the image that matters now.
Clearly, Emily Shippam played a huge role in the Bisons’ victory tonight as she clinched the victory after stopping 18 shots, and scored her first career U SPORTS goal at 18:55 of the third period, putting Manitoba up 4-2! That’s a great day at the office for Shippam, as the Bisons are one win away from a Canada West semi-final appearance after Shippam helped her own cause in Game One with a goal!
Congratulations go out to Manitoba Bisons netminder Emily Shippam who, based on all the reading and research I have done, is the first goaltender to score a goal in the history of U SPORTS women’s hockey!
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!