Canadian hockey phenom Sarah Fillier poised for breakout at Beijing Olympic

CALGARY - The primary time Sarah Fillier performed for Canada’s ladies’s hockey crew, she discovered herself wanting throughout a resort room at her heroine.

A rapt, nine-year-old Fillier watched on tv as Marie-Philip Poulin scored twice for Canada in Vancouver en path to Olympic ladies’s hockey gold in 2010.

A teenage Fillier noticed Poulin produce the late equalizer and extra time winner to repeat in Sochi, Russia, 4 years later.

“Seeing her simply dominate was at all times actually inspiring,” Fillier stated.

These photos imprinted in her mind, Fillier overcame her awe of her roommate in an effort to play with Poulin on the 2018 4 Nations Cup in Saskatoon.

“She was just a little shy at first,” Poulin recalled.

Fillier wasn’t shy on the ice. At 18, she scored in her national-team debut.

The COVID-19 pandemic largely guilty for protecting her off the worldwide hockey stage since then, Fillier is trending in the direction of a breakout efficiency in Beijing’s Winter Olympics.

She could be the youngest participant on Canada’s Olympic crew at 21, however the Georgetown, Ont., ahead is amongst its most harmful within the offensive zone.

Solely Poulin scored extra targets than Fillier throughout Canada’s six-month Olympic prep centralization. Poulin amassed 13 targets in 24 video games to Fillier’s 12 in 26.

Fillier scored 3 times and assisted on three others in six video games in her world championship debut in August. She went on to steer Canada in targets within the Rivalry Sequence towards the US with 5 in six video games.

“Sarah got here able to go for centralization,” Poulin stated. “The expertise this lady has is fairly spectacular. Fast fingers, the way in which she sees the ice, how fast she is, it’s is fairly superb to look at and we’re fairly fortunate to have her that’s for positive.”

Canada’s head coach Troy Ryan coached Fillier at each the under-18 and growth ranges and knew her skills. She’s confirmed herself multi-faceted in centralization, nevertheless.

“I feel the largest factor for Sarah is simply her skill to play the sport at such a quick charge,” Ryan stated. “She will skate nicely, however she additionally processes data fairly fast.

“The largest factor for her success not too long ago has been she’s tailored her recreation to know the place she’s simplest the place possibly in school you see her on the ability play, she’s coming down the flanks, lets an enormous shot go.

“Now she’s enjoying just a little bit with Poulin on the best facet she’s dropping down behind the web going the place targets are scored and getting some extra greasy or targets that typically these high-profile or high-skilled gamers like Sarah don’t get.”

With the pandemic wreaking havoc on hockey in any respect ranges in 2020-21, Fillier determined to forego her junior yr at Princeton, the place twin sister Kyla is her teammate, to remain within the Toronto space and skate with national-team gamers.

Fillier’s satisfied that transfer was pivotal in making an instantaneous affect in her first world championship.

“Simply to have the ability to work each day with individuals like Brianne Jenner and Natalie Spooner and perceive how a national-team participant constantly works out and skates, I feel it simply introduced me to a different degree,” Fillier stated.

“It’s actually what obtained me right here right this moment and why I feel I had a lot success on the world championships and being constant and contributing.”

When she steps on the ice and has the rink to herself for a number of moments, Fillier’s instincts are to launch into edge work or velocity drills with or with out the puck.

“I really feel like that’s at all times been a cornerstone of my recreation,” she stated. “If I used to be on the ice on my own, I do some tight turns and pivots and laps.”

Fillier has prevented the roller-coaster most rookies journey after they make the leap to the nationwide crew, stated Gina Kingsbury, a two-time Olympic gold medallist now managing the nationwide ladies’s crew.

“Typically whenever you’re a younger athlete, consistency is the final piece to come back. You see highs and lows,” Kingsbury stated. “What’s impressed me essentially the most in all probability of her is that she’s been fairly constant right here for the previous few months. That’s actually exhausting to do it on the degree that she performs.

“She’s maturing into an unbelievable athlete that takes her place within the locker room and suits very well with our group. She’s a fierce competitor that appears to stand up when the stress is that's increased.”

Her brother Trevor eight years older performed hockey “so I spent loads of time after I was actually little round rinks. I needed to be identical to him and that’s how I obtained into hockey,” she stated.

“Watching the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and watching the ladies’s and males’s crew win gold, I type of knew that I needed to be on the blue-line and carrying that jersey with a gold medal round my neck.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 24, 2022.