By Michael Boriero
It took over a year to finalize the squad, but Hockey Quebec has announced its roster for the women’s team representing the province at the upcoming Prince Edward Island 2023 Canada Winter Games in Charlottetown, and it features several athletes from the Eastern Townships.
Nearly two weeks ago, Arianne Leblanc, a grade 12 student at Stanstead College and a goaltender for the Spartans hockey team, received news that she was selected as one of the two goaltenders heading to P.E.I from Feb. 18 to March 5. And she won’t be going there alone.
Leblanc will be joined by three of her teammates at Stanstead. Béatrice Perron-Roy, Alexia Aubin, and Maxim Tremblay will also be out east representing Quebec in the female under-18 division. Another teammate, Jamie Arsenault, has been selected to represent New Brunswick.
“Obviously, I really wanted to make the team, but I didn’t know if I would make it. But also, the fact that I made it with a lot of my teammates, I think it’s going to be really nice to play on the same team as them again […] we’re all really excited to go,” Leblanc said in a phone interview.
She told The Record that tryouts for the squad started in the summer of 2021. There were three more evaluation camps in December, this past summer, and again in October. But while she was surprised to make the team in the moment, Leblanc has a lot of confidence in her abilities.
