The Esso Women's Nationals was the Canadian women's senior

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

championship from 1982 to 2008. The winners of the event received the

Abby Hoffman Cup The first instances of organized women's ice hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it was played at the university level. The Women's Hockey Association claims that the city of Ottawa, Ontario hosted the first game in 1891. In 1920, Lad ...

. The second place team was awarded the Fran Rider Cup, while the third place was given the Maureen McTeer Trophy. Nine or ten teams (depending on the tournament) qualified for the event, with two from the province hosting the event. The event was sponsored by

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

History

Since the split between the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...

and the

Western Women's Hockey League The Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL) was a women's hockey league in Canada. The league was established in 2004, and consisted of teams in Canada (some former National Women's Hockey League teams) and one from the United States. The league offi ...

in 2004, this was the only event in the professional women's hockey calendar that saw teams from the two leagues play against each other. Although an agreement between the NWHL and the WWHL was reached in 2006 to merge the two leagues (wherein the latter would be absorbed as a separate division of the former), difficulty in setting up the Nationals alongside an interlocking playoff format prevented the merger from taking place - the Nationals eventually would take place mere days after the WWHL playoffs and before the NWHL playoffs. With the collapse of the NWHL soon after and the establishment of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league ...

in Eastern Canada, the Esso Nationals, which will also serve as a playoff of sorts between the WWHL and CWHL, received a format overhaul in 2008, in which the top two teams from the WWHL (representing

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

) and the top two teams from the CWHL (representing

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

) automatically qualified for the event. Teams representing the provinces without teams in either league filled out the remainder of the field, due to

Hockey Canada Hockey Canada (which merged with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1994) is the national governing body of ice hockey and ice sledge hockey in Canada. It is a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation and controls the majority ...

requirements that every province be represented. The Abby Hoffman Cup was awarded to both the club pool and the team pool champions. Similarly, the Fran Rider Cup and the Maureen McTeer Trophy (the trophies awarded for the silver and bronze medalists at the Esso Nationals) were awarded in both the club and team pool tournaments. To level the playing field (which in recent years had been dominated by club teams) for 2008, the four club teams played in a separate tournament from the four all-star teams (and thus two championships were awarded at the Esso Nationals), with the intent that the club pool (with the

Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup (french: La Coupe Clarkson) is a women's ice hockey trophy, which from 2009 to 2019 was awarded to the winner of the Canadian Women's Hockey Championship (CWHL champion). With the folding of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CW ...

as its championship) would be splintered off into its own tournament at some point in the future. The 2008 tournament also saw the first

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

team to qualify, with the

Minnesota Whitecaps The Minnesota Whitecaps are a professional ice hockey team in the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF; formerly known as the National Women's Hockey League). They play in Richfield, Minnesota, part of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, at ...

joining the

Calgary Oval X-Treme The Calgary Oval X-Treme were a professional women's ice hockey team in the Western Women's Hockey League (WWHL). The team played its home games at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Oval X-Treme were a member of the National Wome ...

in representing the WWHL in the club pool. The format was the same for both the club and team tournaments: after the four teams played a single round robin pool, the four teams were seeded based on their standings and played a single-elimination tournament for the championship. This arrangement had lasted for only one year; in 2009, the dispute between Clarkson and the

's artists was settled, and a new championship, the National Canadian Women's Hockey Championship, was created for the professional teams, under the same format. However, this was not without cost as Hockey Canada elected to discontinue the Esso Women's Nationals in favour of the ''

Esso Cup The Esso Cup is the Canadian national women's under-18 ice hockey club championship, sponsored by Esso. It is an annual event, sanctioned by Hockey Canada, that takes place each April. The current champions are the Durham West Lightning, who w ...

'', a new national female midget 'AAA' championship.

List of Champions

Game details

*On March 22, 1998,

Dana Antal Dana Antal (born April 19, 1977 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) is a women's ice hockey player. She won a gold medal with Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Prior to joining the Canadian national team, she played collegiate hock ...

scored at 5:31 of a 10-minute overtime period on a pass from Jennifer Botterill as Team Alberta (represented by the Calgary Oval X-Treme) defeated Team Ontario (represented by the Beatrice Aeros) by a 3-2 mark to win the Esso Nationals. *The Calgary Oval X-Treme (Team Alberta) and the Brampton Thunder (Team Ontario) competed in the 2003 Esso Women's National Hockey Championship. Team Alberta won by a score of 6-3 in front of over 1,100 fans at Saskatchewan Place. Samantha Holmes scored twice while

Colleen Sostorics Colleen Kay Sostorics (born December 17, 1979 in Kennedy, Saskatchewan) is a Canadian retired women's ice hockey defenseman. She has played extensively for Canada at the international level, including three Olympic gold medals ( 2002 in Turin ...

and

Delaney Collins Delaney Collins (born May 2, 1977) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and coach. She announced her retirement from international play on August 23, 2011. Playing career Collins was a member of the Calgary Oval X-Treme in 2007 and 2008, as ...

each contributed two assists. Team Alberta outscored their opponents in the tournament 46 to 10. With the win, Team Alberta was awarded the

Awards and honors

*2006 Top Forward:

Jayna Hefford Jayna Hefford (born May 14, 1977) is a Canadian retired ice hockey player and current chairperson of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association. During her career, she won multiple medals at the Winter Olympics and IIHF World Women's C ...

(Team Ontario) *2006 Top Goaltender: Charline Labonté (Team Quebec) *2006 Tournament MVP: Annie Durosiers (Team Quebec) *2007 Tournament MVP (Pool A):

Hayley Wickenheiser Hayley Wickenheiser (born August 12, 1978) is a Canadian former ice hockey player, resident physician and assistant general manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs. She was the first woman to play full-time professional men’s hockey in a positio ...

(Team Alberta) *2007 Top Defender (Pool A):

Cheryl Pounder Cheryl Pounder (born June 21, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec) is a women's ice hockey player. She played defence for the Canadian Women's Hockey League's Mississauga Chiefs, and competed in the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. Pounder attended hig ...

(Team Ontario) *2007 Top goaltender (Pool A): Desirae Clark (Team BC) *2007 Top Forward (Pool A):

Gina Kingsbury Gina Kingsbury (born November 26, 1981) is a Canadian former women's professional ice hockey player. She graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in psychology, and ranks second all-time in scoring among St. Lawrence Skating Saints w ...

(Team Alberta) *2007 Tournament MVP (Pool B):

Karen Thatcher Karen Elizabeth Thatcher (born February 29, 1984) is an American ice hockey forward. She was named to the United States women's ice hockey team for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Personal life Thatcher was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, but grew u ...

(Team BC) *2007 Top Defender (Pool B): Melissa Coulombe (Team Manitoba) *2007 Top goaltender (Pool B): Kenzie Waterstreet (Team BC - Host Team) *2007 Top Forward (Pool B):

(Team BC) *2007 Mickey Walker – Most Sportsmanlike Player – Jennifer Sullivan (PEI) *2007 Most Sportsmanlike Team – New Brunswick

Players of the game

*2003 Gold Medal Game,

, Oval X-Treme (Team Alberta) *2003 Gold Medal Game, Jayna Hefford, Brampton Thunder (Team Ontario) *2006 Gold Medal Game, Kristie Zamora, Brampton Thunder (Team Ontario) *2006 Gold Medal Game, Charline Labonte, Montreal Axion (Team Quebec)

References