montrealgazette.com
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Marie-Philip Poulin
Ice hockey
34
Beauceville
Widely considered one of the best female hockey players in the world, Marie-Philip Poulin got her start in the small town of Beauceville, tucked amid farmers’ fields south of Quebec City.
She began playing at the age of five to be like her older brother,
joining boys’ teams because that’s all there was.
Three decades later, Poulin is the veteran captain of Team Canada’s women’s ice hockey team as it faces one of its toughest Olympic challenges. Canada has won gold at five of the seven Games at which women’s hockey has been featured, often thanks largely to Poulin. But in the most recent series against their arch-nemesis Team USA, it has been the Americans who dominated.
Poulin — known affectionately as “Pou” to teammates and fans — moved to Montreal to learn English when she was 16. She was at Dawson College when she was chosen as the youngest player on Team Canada going to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at the age of 18. Her CEGEP professors noted how hard she worked to study in her second language while also playing high-level hockey.
In Vancouver, Poulin scored the winning goal as a fourth-line player against the U.S. to earn Canada Olympic gold. Four years later, she scored the game-winner for gold in Sochi, and yet again in Beijing in 2022, earning her the title “Captain Clutch.”
Now entering her fifth Olympics (making her the third Canadian hockey player ever to do so), Poulin has the chance to earn a fourth gold, a feat only achieved by three other hockey players, all women: Jayna Hefford, Hayley Wickenheiser and Caroline Ouellette, who is currently coach of the Concordia Stingers and an assistant coach for Team Canada in Milano Cortina.
The hill to climb this time around appears much steeper. The Canadians lost to Team USA at last year’s world championship and in all four games in the Rivalry Series held last year. The Americans’ younger, faster team outscored Canada 24-7 in the matchup.
Ann-Renée Desbiens, Poulin’s teammate on the Montreal Victoire and the only other Quebec-born hockey player going to Italy (15 members of the team are from Ontario,
raising questions about Quebec’s development system),
said recently not to worry because the Rivalry Series was mostly an opportunity to try out new strategies and techniques.
“We love the competition and to push ourselves,” Desbiens said in a Zoom call following the announcement of Team Canada’s roster. “This group of women is very special, and I have a lot of confidence in us for what’s to come.”
The goaltender from the small town of Clermont backstopped Canada to a gold medal in Beijing and a silver in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She was named PWHL goaltender of the year for 2024-25.
Team Canada also has a driving force in Poulin, who lives hockey in many ways. She was instrumental in starting the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), is captain of the Montreal Victoire team and is married to her Victoire linemate Laura Stacey, who was also named to Team Canada. Poulin was voted the International Ice Hockey Federation’s female player of the year for the 2024-25 season.
At 34, questions arise as to whether this could be her last Olympics. During a Zoom interview in January, Poulin said she didn’t know yet. For now, she’s just trying to soak in the feeling one more time.
“Just to take it in and enjoy that moment because every four years, it does move by fast, that’s for sure.
“I still love this. I’m still passionate about this.”
The first game for the Canadian women’s ice hockey team at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games is on Feb. 5 at 3:10 p.m. EST against Finland.
The gold medal match is on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 1:10 p.m.
rbruemmer@postmedia.com
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