Big fish in a big pond
Plan B isn’t always such a bad thing.
If Nikki Poissant didn’t know it before, she learned it in 2006 when she served as back-up goalie on the Saskatchewan entry that won bronze at the women’s world broomball championship in Blaine, Minnesota – a city on the north fringe of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.
The point was driven home earlier this month when the 20-year-old Sedley product was promoted to the Odessa Storm’s starting job for the 2008 worlds. This time Poissant and the Storm made it to the Championship before falling 1-0 in overtime to Eastern Ontario’s McMillan Sand and Gravel entry.
Worlds ran Nov. 4-8 in Vancouver, with teams from Canada, the United States, Japan, Australia, and Italy.
“One of my friends from high school played and she made it seem like it was such a good time,” said Poissant, who played her first broomball game in 2000 with the Odessa Flames midget squad. “I think at the time I was trying to convince my dad to put me back into hockey – I hadn’t played since I was 5 – but my mom wouldn’t have any of it. So broomball was the next best thing.”
In this case the “B” stood for “broomball.” It could also stand for “bonus.”
The Storm’s improved standing was punctuated for Poissant with the presenting of the post-tournament awards. All four of her wins (she played to a 4-2 record) were shutouts and it was enough to earn her tournament MVP honours as well as a selection to the tourney’s first all-star team.
“I definitely did not expect to win those awards … I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the night,” she said.
Poissant’s teammates may not have been as shocked considering Poissant had been named the top goaltender, first all-star, and team MVP at junior nationals in March.
And to think none of this almost ever happened.
“My very first game was in Balgonie and I remember being terrified because … I still didn’t know much about how the game was supposed to go,” said a laughing Poissant. “(On) my first shift I got a two-minute penalty for high broom and I would have been 12 or 13 at the time so I was pretty embarrassed.”
Poissant had little to be embarrassed about this time around as even the one shot that beat her in the world final may have been scored illegally – on a debatable high broom that was not called by the officials.
The World Broomball Championships are contested every two years and Poissant expects to be there with Odessa again in 2010. If the Storm continue their seemingly natural progression, a gold medal would not be out of the question.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully taking that next step,” she said.
