MacLean'18 carrying on family tradition with hockey Reds

www.telegraphjournal.com


November 26, 2018

Jenna MacLean scored four goals in two games for the University of New Brunswick Reds women's hockey team on the weekend. She leads the Reds into Wednesday night's latest incarnation of the Battle of the Hill Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Aitken Centre.
Photo: Andy Campbell/UNB Athletics
Jenna MacLean is carrying on the family tradition with the University of New Brunswick Reds.

The first-year defender with the Reds' first-year women's hockey team is actually a third generation Red. Her grandfather, the late Paul MacLean, played for the Red Devils in the early 1970s. Her uncle Dax MacLean played four seasons with the Reds men's team, from 1995-96 through 1998-99. In 108 games over that time, he scored 77 goals and 81 assists for 158 points, still fifth all-time in program history. He was part of UNB's first national men's hockey championship team in 1997-98.

Jenna made some history of her own on the weekend: the 18-year-old rookie scored the first hat trick in the reborn Reds' history Sunday, hitting the empty net in the final minute of play Sunday in a 5-0 win over the Dalhousie Tigers in Halifax.

This on the heels of the first goal of her university career in a tough 2-1 loss to the Saint Mary's Huskies the night before.

She and the Reds hope to continue that roll into Wednesday's home game against the league-leading St. Thomas Tommies Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at the Aitken Centre.

For all the family ties and great genetics she has on the MacLean family tree - her dad, Jason, is a coach of the Notre Dame Hounds, the renowned hockey factory in her hometown of Wilcox, Sask. - the man who has had the biggest influence on her game might have been her 20-year-old brother Conor.

He's the one who said something - she doesn't even remember what, exactly - that helped make her what she is today. Which is, to state it most simply, a great skater, maybe the best among the rookie-laden Reds.

"I was on the ice with my brother one time and he said something, and it really triggered me," she said. "I just worked on it from there, and I think it paid off a lot. Now it's a strength of my game as a little player...using my speed as a great advantage."

"She's an unbelievable skater," said coach Sarah Hilworth, who recruited her as a defenceman but had her up front on the weekend. "She's such a fantastic skater. Playing her on defence gives her the time and space to really use her wheels and get up ice quick."

Indeed. Being born into a hockey family, and incubated in a hockey town - her mom, Kate, is the principal of Athol Murray College in Notre Dame and dad Jason coaches the boys Midget AA team along with his academic responsibilities - helps.

"I started playing on a team when I was three or four," she said. "I started playing in small towns...wherever we could get enough kids to play."

She started playing at Notre Dame in Grade 8 and was there through Grade 12. That's where she got on coach Sarah Hilworth's radar. Having her uncle and a couple of cousins in town and her grandmother in nearby Miramichi to cheer her on helps, too.

MacLean was pressed into service as a forward this past weekend due to a couple of injuries. But her first goal as a Red came from the point on the power play and two of her three on Sunday came from there as well.

MacLean, busy settling into her own role with the Reds, hasn't had time to look up the resume her uncle Dax built over four seasons.

"I know he was pretty good," she said, chuckling. "At least that's what he tells me."

He wasn't lying: Now 43, he's still top five all-time at UNB though he graduated 20 years ago; a first team all-star and league MVP and a member of the school's first national men's hockey championship team in 1997-98.

"Oh wow," she said. The subject may come up at the supper table next time she's over - an event which happens "once a week or so," she said. "It's nice to have that family connection and a home to go and grab a meal. As much as I can when we have a break, I try to get there. I thought I'd be more homesick. It's nice to have the family connection in town."

Dax "is always giving me advice and pumping me up," she said. "He was really proud."

While Jenna was among the Reds'  early recruits, Conor actually blazed the trail back east first: he played in the Maritime Hockey League for the Woodstock Slammers last year and moved with the team to Grand Falls, where he played four games the newly established Rapids. He was traded back west a couple of weeks ago to Notre Dame's Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League entry.

MacLean calls her experience with the new Reds thus far "awesome...everything I hoped it would be. It's been a lot of fun getting to know the girls and develop the program." 

Hilworth was happy to see MacLean "finally get rewarded," on the scoresheet this past weekend.

"That girl's hit so many posts," she said. "She's come so close. She did a good job to keep working hard. I think it's just the beginning of something really great with her. She had the hot hand this weekend and we kept putting her out every second shift [for the hat trick] and telling her 'Don't come off until you score.'"
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