Not only are Deanna and Ashley Morin identical twins, the St. Albert Slash forwards are also double trouble for opposing teams.
The 15-year-old blue-eyed and blonde Grade 10 students from Fort Saskatchewan made significant contributions in their first season with the Slash in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League.
Deanna, a centre, finished fifth in team scoring with 34 points in 32 games.
Ashley, a right-winger, tied for seventh in the points race with 20 in 22 games.
“Even though we play different positions and we do different things, we play pretty much the same way,” said Ashley, the taller of the Morin sisters by a hair. “Deanna is aggressive and good down low. She is good both offensively and defensively.”
“Ashley is aggressive as well,” chimed in Deanna, who was born first. “She is good with the puck and along the boards. She has a good shot too.”
Deanna scored three of her eight goals on the power play and was selected to play in the league all-star game.
“I’ve learned lots. The coaching here is good,” Deanna said. “You always have to play your best, even if you’re playing a weaker team you always have to keep going because you never know what will happen.”
Ashley overcame a high ankle sprain in October that sidelined her for two and a half months to notch six goals, with three coming on the power play.
“It’s been lots of fun. It’s a lot better hockey than what I’m used to playing in Fort Saskatchewan,” Ashley said. “I learned to be really aggressive.”
This is the third season on girls’ teams for the Morins, who played on boys’ teams from an early age up to bantam.
“We’ve played all of our lives together so I don’t really know what it would be like without my twin sister on my team,” said Deanna, who occasionally skates on the same line as Ashley.
The jump from bantam to midget has brought out the best in the Morins.
“It’s definitely a big step. It’s a lot faster and you have to play a lot stronger and physical and you can’t take a game off,” Deanna said.
“In bantam, where we played, it wasn’t really that very intense but midget is more intense and a lot faster. You have a lot more games too,” added Ashley.
As the host team for the third annual Esso Cup, the Slash posted the second-best record in the north standings at 23-6-3.
“We had a really good season. The only team we really had trouble with was Edmonton, but other than that we’ve done really well,” Ashley said of the rival Thunder, the Pacific region qualifiers for the April 17 to 23 national female midget hockey championship at Servus Credit Union Place.
The Thunder, first in the north at 27-0-5, outscored the Slash 10-6 to win the best-of-five north final in four games. In the league final the Thunder rallied from a 2-1 series deficit to defeat the Red Deer Chiefs in the fifth and deciding game for their second-straight playoff crown.
Last weekend the 2010 national bronze medallists beat out the British Columbia champion Thompson-Okanagan Rockets in the Pacific qualifier.
They join the Notre Dame Hounds (West), Toronto Aeros (Ont.), Kodiacs Lac Saint Louis (Que.), Kings Country Kings, P.E.I. (Atlantic) and the Slash in the six-team tournament draw.
“We’re more excited than nervous for it to start,” Ashley said. “Everyone will probably put lots of pressure on us because they will think that we’re just in it because we’re hosting but I think we’ll do pretty good.”
The Slash haven’t played since March 12, a 2-1 loss to the Thunder that eliminated St. Albert in the playoffs.
“It won’t be too long of a break. The 17th will come soon enough. We’ll just keep practicing until then,” Deanna said of the Esso Cup opener for the Slash against Toronto at 8 p.m. April 17 at Performance Arena “We’ve definitely got to bring our best because we’re hosting.”
Today at 5:30 p.m. the Slash will play an exhibition against the bantam AA St. Albert Blues at Performance. Sunday’s exhibition against the MacEwan Griffins starts at 1:15 p.m. at Performance.
