Kamloops is starting to feel a lot like home for Emerance Maschmeyer.
The Canadian goaltender’s affair with the Tournament Capital began in 2012. Her brother, Bronson, was then a fan-favourite defenceman for the Kamloops Blazers.
It was the elder Maschmeyer who scored one of the most famous goals in franchise history, finding twine in Game 6 of the Blazers’ WHL Western Conference semifinal against Portland Winterhawks, sending Kamloops to a Game 7 against the American powerhouse.
Emerance made her own Kamloops debut in 2014, backstopping Canada to two victories at the 4 Nations Cup, a tournament in which Canada defeated the United States to capture gold at what was then Interior Savings Centre.
Now, the 21-year-old is forging another connection with the River City, playing in her first world championship on Canadian soil this week.
“It’s funny because I think back to when I went to watch him — I watched him in playoffs, his last year,” Emerance said of Bronson. “It’s so funny just thinking back to that and 2014 and now this year.
“It’s definitely feeling like home.”
In reality, home is Bruderheim, Alta., a farming community about 50 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, home to a few more than 1,100 people.
It was a community where Emerance and her four siblings — three brothers and a sister — learned to play on an outdoor rink, she never lacking for shooters and them never lacking a netminder.
Emerance asserted that, despite her brother arguing to the contrary, the family never used frozen cow patties in place of hockey pucks.
The 5-foot-6 goaltender has come a long way since her days on the backyard sheet, though. She recently completed her university hockey eligibility, fulfilling her lifelong dream of playing for the Harvard Crimson, and represented Canada in the 2012 under-18 world championship, the 4 Nations Cup in 2014 and 2015 and the 2015 world championship.
In the 2015 National Women’s Hockey League draft, she was selected in the second round, seventh overall, by the Boston Pride.
“I think back to my days back in Bruderheim and just how far I’ve gone since then — it’s incredible,” Emerance said.
And though the Crimson were a solid team in her tenure — they made it to the national title game in 2015 — donning the Maple Leaf takes the competition to another level.
“Definitely, when you come to pre-world camp and all these different camps and these tournaments, these girls are the best in the country and so it’s another step up,” she said.
“Harvard has definitely prepared me well for it.”
Team Canada utilized both Maschmeyer and three-time Olympic gold medallist Charline Labonté between the pipes in Kamloops this week. Maschmeyer put in a gem of a performance against the Americans on Monday, despite falling 3-1.
No matter the role the rest of the way, Emerance is hoping to write another chapter in her history with Kamloops this week.
Maybe this one will have another golden ending.
“I’m so excited for it. The atmosphere, I’m sure, is going to be crazy,” she said earlier this week.
“Thinking back to 2014 at 4 Nations in Kamloops, the atmosphere was unbelievable, so I can only imagine what it’s going to be like now.”
