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The Montreal Canadiens' dynasty of Guy Lafleur, Serge Savard,
Larry Robinson and Ken Dryden wasn't spinning dreams for little
boys only. Danielle Goyette of Saint-Nazaire, Que., one of the
eight children of Marielle and Henri-Paul Goyette, fell in love
with a sport where they said girls didn't belong.
"Go
play ringette, they always told me, but I didn't play one game
of it. I wanted hockey," says Danielle -- and the Canadian women's
national hockey team can be glad she was so defiant.
Goyette,
34, wiry and quick at 148 pounds, is the top scorer in the national
team's history as the Canucks begin their quest for a sixth consecutive
world championship tonight with a game against Japan at Mississauga's
Hershey Centre. Aligned with strong wingers Hayley Wickenheiser
and Jennifer Botterill, Goyette has 60 goals and 100 points wearing
the national team's jersey since 1992.
The
marksmanship has its origins on the Saturday nights when she elbowed
her way to the TV set to watch Lafleur and company. The Montreal
Canadiens' broadcast was her classroom, Guy Lafleur the professor
emeritus.
"At
15 I was playing in an all-female league, but I was 15, another
woman was 40, and we played one game a week with no practices.
That's how it was, my hockey was one game a week until I made
the national team. I had never had a real practice until I was
over 30."
No
practices, no film sessions -- just the pictures Danielle Goyette
played over and over in her mind on those Saturday nights, when
she would put on her skates after the Habs' game, shovel off the
public rink next to her house and try to imitate the Canadiens.
"I
don't know how many times I shovelled the rink. I didn't really
have a role model. I'd put big snowballs out on the ice and go
around them, trying to do things like Guy Lafleur. My parents
would look and say 'It's dark, are you crazy? Come in Danielle,'
but that's how I learned. I just played by instinct. When I started
with the national team, this forechecking and backchecking was
all new for me."
Being
self-taught took her to the national-team level in 1992, but to
stay there in the rapidly developing environment of women's hockey,
Goyette had more to learn.
"We've
asked her to be more of a complete player this year, have some
defensive duties and withstand some physical punishment," Canadian
head coach Melody Davidson said. "Danielle took that as a challenge
and she's responded tremendously. She wants to be someone she
knows I can go to whether defence or offence is required."
Goyette
was roughed up emotionally at the time of the 1998 Nagano Olympics.
She had lost her mother in 1996, and as she was preparing for
the Olympic Games, she knew her father was slipping away with
Alzheimer's disease. Henri-Paul Goyette died two days before the
Games, and Danielle had to pull herself together. She did that,
becoming the Olympics' top scorer with eight goals and one assist
in six games.
Then,
late in the tournament, after a crucial 7-4 loss to the U.S. team,
during the postgame handshakes, one of the U.S. players made an
ill-chosen comment about Mr. Goyette. Danielle burst into tears
and rushed from the ice.
"My
parents always supported my hockey," Goyette said. "They said
I must do what I wanted. The Olympics was very hard. It was the
first time women's hockey was in the Games and it was an official
medal event. You play hard, you try for that medal and you come
home and you want to see the reaction from your mom and dad. I
didn't have that."
What
she does have is much respect and more hockey hardware -- four
world championship golds, three golds and a silver from the Three
Nations Cup tournaments, three gold medals with Team Quebec at
the national championships. She was named to the 1994 world championship
all-star team.
There
is now a women's professional hockey league, but Goyette, who
trains at Calgary's Olympic Oval, said she never considered hockey
her profession. "It's full-time -- you've got no choice but to
train every day because today there are girls ready to take your
place -- but I always thought of hockey as my hobby that I love.
"Before I hang up the skates, I want to be a complete player.
When that's done, I'll go back to the business I started, a women's
sports store. I have to be active, I have to use my hands -- and
not to sit behind a desk and type."
For
now, Goyette will keep the goalies of women's hockey busy with
their hands -- picking rubber out of the net.
Reprinted with permission
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