With a memorable season behind her, goaltender Danika Ranger has been working hard this summer to make more memories this fall sporting the colours of Nipissing University.
The Astorville product helped lead Team Canada’s Under-18 women’s team to a silver medal last year at the World Under-18 Women’s Hockey Championships and comes in with a lot of hype as arguably the program’s most high profile local hockey recruit.
“I am pretty excited to start at Nipissing. They seem to really have a great program and I know Turk is a really good coach and I am excited to start the season,” said Ranger about the Lakers program and former NHLer Darren Turcotte, who is the team’s head coach.
Ranger joins a Lakers team that lost out in the OUA final to the Guelph Gryphons. She will team up with Lakers female athlete of the year Jackie Rochefort for what may be the best goaltending tandem in the OUA in 2017-18.
“I know I am motivated because I am going to a good team, I am going in with a lot of confidence, hopefully getting to play high up and making it to the CIS championship,” said Ranger, who was the top goalie at the Esso Cup Midget AA nationals while winning gold with the Sudbury Lady Wolves in Alberta back in 2015.
The Astorville product who played last season for the Durham Lightning of the PWHL, has been working hard in the off-season including working on the ice with Dan Spence, a former Nipissing Lakers star netminder with the men’s program.
He says Ranger is a humble goaltender with a great compete level.
“It’s been great working with her since she was an Ice Boltz goalie, and it’s great to see her develop and we are very proud of her and all of her accomplishments so far. And being part of a Nipissing Lakers program that I was fortunate enough to play for and have some success with, is pretty cool to be able to now be working with her as one of the top female athletes going into the program,” said Spence, who runs 360 Goaltending camps.
“I’ve been talking to Dan since I was a little girl and he has helped me out so much to get where I am and I want to thank him so much for getting me where I am now and hopefully we will keep training together,” said Ranger about working with Spence.
While Ranger is a very talented goaltender, she believes the mental game may be the key to her success moving forward.
“I think it’s just staying calm in the net, having really good mental stability and just making sure that I am positioned soundly and making sure I am square to the puck, I think that’s what made me go so far,” said Ranger.
Ranger, sporting her new Nipissing colored pads, will join her new teammates at Lakers training camp in early September.
