Almost a year ago, Mallard's Brigette Lacquette became the first ever First Nation's woman to make the Canadian women's Olympic hockey team. Brigette went on to win a silver medal at the Pyeongchang Games.
Now, the 26-year-old is playing in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and, it was just announced that Brigette will play in the league's All-Star game.
"It means a ton to me and I'm super excited to play in this game," said Lacquette. "It's going to be a ton of fun playing against all of the best women in the league in one game. It's going to be a great weekend."
"I didn't really think I would make it, but I just got an email one day and it's a complete honour," she added. "I've seen the list of the girls selected and it feels absolutely amazing to be amongst the best ladies in the country."
The All-Star game goes on January 20 and it will be broadcasted on Sportsnet. The game is played at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
"I'm just really looking forward to the entire weekend," said Lacquette. "I've never been to an All-Star Weekend, and it's super exciting."
This season with the Calgary Inferno, the Mallard native has been a regular on the scoresheet. Lacquette has 11 points in 14 games (2G). Since playing her first CWHL game with the Inferno back in the 2015-16 season, the 26-year-old has been very steady. She's played in 43 games and has 35 points.
With this season being her first since playing in the Olympics, it's very easy for Brigette to look back at that experience in a positive way. She's well on her way to having a career year this campaign and it's playing on Team Canada that fuelled her to have this success.
"Yeah, absolutely playing on Team Canada helped me, I learned from so many great ladies," said Lacquette. "Now, it's just about working my butt off and giving it all I have every single day."
"I need to continue getting better every day and I think I'm pretty focused on that," she added. "The goal right now is to win a Championship with the Inferno."
It's been smooth sailing for Lacquette and the Inferno this season, for the most part. They're 12-1-0-1. That has them comfortably in first place by seven points. The team has 14 more regular season games. This weekend, they wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule against Toronto in Calgary.
"We definitely have a pretty good squad, and we have a few players that won a gold medal with the US at the Olympics," said Lacquette. "We're strong on the back end, up front, and in net. We're confident in our abilities for sure."
After this weekend, Brigette and the team resume their season on January 5-6 in Markham.