Rebecca Johnston talks hockey past, present and future

With three straight appearances at the NCAA Frozen Four, it's easy to forget that the Cornell Big Red women's hockey program registered all of just four wins the year before the arrival of Sudbury native Rebecca Johnston.

With her graduation mere months away, the Olympic Gold medallist looks back on that turnaround as perhaps the source of her greatest pride as a collegiate hockey star.

"Going in, I felt like it was going to be a long stretch, I didn't think we would improve as much during the time I was there," Johnston said during a recent visit back home. "It grew and developed really fast and it was great to see that I was able to be part of that."

A big part, she might well have added. The Lo-Ellen Park Secondary graduate has captured every award imaginable during her time in Ithaca, N.Y., recently selected as ECAC Player of the Year.

"Cornell is a great academic school, it's a school that a lot of people want to go to,” Johnston said. “Having a couple of really good players decide to go there can really help turn a program around.”

In fact, as Johnston prepares for the upcoming World Women's Hockey Championships in Burlington, Vt., she is joined on the roster by Cornell teammates Brianne Jenner (sophomore) and juniors Lauriane Rougeau and Laura Fortino. Coach Derraugh is also in familiar territory, serving as an assistant coach for Team Canada to bench boss Dan Church.

A lot has changed for Johnston since graduating, in 2007, as a five-time OFSAA track and field medallist with the Knights at Lo-Ellen, including the way she plays hockey.

"I've definitely become an all-around better player," Johnston said. "I know going in as a freshman, I was all about offense. I didn't really put much time on the defensive side of the game. To be an outstanding player, you need all aspects of the game."

Bring together several outstanding players and you soon build something truly special.

"Winning our first ECAC was a pretty big accomplishment for us," Johnston said. "At that moment, I felt I was part of something special, something that turned around so drastically."

Wonderful memories persisted, even as the Big Red established themselves as clear-cut national contenders. Roughly one month ago, Johnston and company were part of one of the wildest games in the history of elite NCAA women's hockey.

With a berth at the Frozen Four on the line, Cornell and Boston University traded no less than 14 goals in regulation time, tied at 7-7, only to need another 59 minutes and 50 seconds to produce the game-winning goal.

"It was my last game at Lynah Rink," Johnston said. "(Coach Derraugh) started double-shifting us in the first overtime, because there had been so many goals scored. He figured it would end quickly.

"We just kept going and going and by the third overtime, we're still double-shifting," Johnston added. "That was a highlight game. I've never been that exhausted in my life."

A soon-to-be graduate of the communications program at Cornell, Johnston now enters arguably the most difficult transition of her life, balancing between the hockey dreams she stills holds dear and the reality that is being an Olympic hopeful in the vast majority of Canadian amateur sports.

"I'm aiming for the next Olympics (2014 in Sochi) and then I'm not sure after that," she said. "I do want to look at my career and stuff, it's hard to do everything."

Ideally, Johnston would love to leverage the profile she maintains within the women's game, though not nearly as visible as Canadian teammate and fellow Sudburian Tessa Bonhomme.

"I don't know exactly what I would like to do," Johnston said. "I'm thinking public relations, working with a sports team, behind the scenes. I don't want to be a broadcaster or anything.”

At the moment, she will tap into the knowledge of other veterans of the national team program, likely looking to call either Calgary or Toronto home for a bit, trying to maintain her hockey skills within a structure that is clearly less than ideal.

"It would be nice to play in a league where we do get funded and we can focus on just developing our hockey," Johnston said. "I think eventually, that's going to happen. Right now, it's a little frustrating trying to manage everything."

By the summer, her plate might likely include some type of part-time work to supplement the funding of the government carding system, not to mention balancing off her personal life, as well.

"I haven't thought about kids, but I've been in a relationship now for three years," noted the Lady Wolves product who turns 23 in September. "There's no marriage plans at this point, at least not yet."

Regardless of where Johnston's legacy will stand a decade or more from now, the northern Ontario gal looks back, with pride, on the growth of women's hockey, knowing she has played a role in that growth.

"It's great to see the amount of girls playing," Johnston said. "When I was at Cornell, my first year, we had 10 people in the stands that were probably all parents. Mind you, we weren't that good.

"Now, in my last two years, we would get a couple of thousand fans to every game," she added. "It just makes me really happy and excited that people actually want to watch women's hockey."
 

Posted by Laurel Myers