Kleinburg's Stacey stickhandles past challenges to Pyeongchang Games

Power forward 1 of 9 new faces on Canada's women's team

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 7, 2018
By John Cudmore

It has been an interesting journey to the Olympic Games for Laura Stacey.

Disappointments, setbacks and reflective moments have been plenty. Yet the Kleinburg resident has been able to fire back at each hurdle to realize the dream she has held since watching her hero, Cassie Campbell, and the rest of Team Canada at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

On four occasions she was cut by the national women's team, prior to competing at the world championships in 2017. In the final game of her outstanding collegiate career in 2016 at Dartmouth College, she was tripped into the boards, breaking both wrists and jeopardizing her career.

A lesser character might have quit somewhere along the line. Not the third overall pick of the Brampton (now Markham) Thunder in the Canadian Women's Hockey League's 2016 draft, however.

"For sure, there were times when I thought this was not possible or going to happen," the 23-year-old said recently from Team Canada's pre-Olympics base camp in Incheon, South Korea. "You just have to push through the setbacks and let them make you stronger.

"It's been a crazy experience, but I think it has made me stronger and pushed me to be stronger in order to make this team. At (some) point, I had to make a decision to make this team even more."

Stacey, who attended The Hill Academy in Concord before accepting a scholarship to Dartmouth, recognizes the need to keep improving. She knows there are players just like her with similar stories looking to snatch away a roster spot.

"You need to grow and evolve because everyone around you is trying to get better," said Stacey, who is one of nine roster changes since the 2014 Sochi Games.

"There are definitely a lot more in my situation trying to push through. It's hard to grasp sometimes. I'm in awe being surrounded by this group of people. But I'm here and this is a dream I've had for a long time." Pooled with the United States, Olympic Athletes of Russia (OAR) and Finland, Canada starts its medal journey on Feb. 11.

Stacey has interesting bloodlines. She is the great-granddaughter of legendary King Clancy. Her great uncle Terry Clancy played at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, winning a silver medal in men's hockey, and serves as a source for reference.

"It's more just hearing about his experiences and hearing his opinion on how special it was to him," said Stacey, who spent one of her four seasons in the Provincial Women's Hockey League with the Aurora Panthers. "It makes being in (the Olympics) very special."