Stephanie Caryk is accustomed to winning championships. After all, she won twice-- in 2012 and 2013-- with the Double A St. Vital Vics and last year, was the goaltender who led Polar Ice to the Manitoba Women’ s Junior Hockey League crown. This year, she’ s back leading Polar Ice once again. In nine starts, she’ s 7-2-0 with four shutouts, a goals against average of 1.76 and a save percentage of. 938. And while she has been as brilliant this year as she was when she led her team to the MWJHL title last spring, she is not in it alone. Not by a long shot. This season, head coach, Dave Benediktson went out and got her some help. Along with rookie Katerina Mizeracki, Caryk has led Polar Ice to a 13-2-1 record and they lead the Silvertips by five points( at press time) in the race for first overall in the MWJHL. Of course, for anyone who knows Benediktson, this should not be a surprise. He’ s a coach who loves sound defensive strategies and understands the importance of great goaltending to a team’ s success.
“ We have two goaltenders that are even-Steven, we don’ t have to worry about either one of them,” said Benediktson, who guided Polar Ice to last year’ s title.“ We lucked out and got Mizeracki in the third round. We already had Caryk, so we weren’ t looking a another goaltender in the first two rounds, but we lucked out when Mizeracki was available in the third round. Now we’ re set for another three years.“ I knew her through my daughter so I’ ve known her for years. Everyone knew how good she was but nobody usually takes goalie until the fourth or fifth round. We got the third and said,‘ The goalie is the most important person out there, let’ s take her
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