Canadian goaltender Shannon Szabados won her second Olympic Gold Medal at the games in Sochi last month, but now she is ready to take on a new challenge in her hockey career, playing professional hockey in a men’s league. The 27-year-old will join the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) next week, as soon as her immigration paperwork goes through.
Szabados will be the first female to play in the 10-team SPHL since its formation 10 years ago. Szabados put up a 0.96 GAA and .954 save percentage for Canada in the Olympics was the winning goaltender in the gold medal victory over the United States. Her work in keeping the United States to just two goals despite heavily outshooting Canada in the first 55 minutes was instrumental in keeping Canada in the game and allowing them to come back late in the game and win it in overtime.
“When I got home from Sochi, I thought I’d be hanging my stuff up for the summer, but definitely excited to get over there,” Szabados told The Canadian Press.
“There’s three guys that I played college with that play on this team in Columbus and they’ve been bugging me for a couple of years to go there.”
“I had never talked to their head coach and he called me yesterday. Honestly, I thought he was calling to ask me if I would want to go there next year. It happened a little fast, but I’m excited.”
Szabados has played in men’s leagues during much of her hockey career. She played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (Junior a) as a teenager, even winning goaltender of the year for the league in 2006-07 after helping Fort Saskatchewan to a league-best record of 45-11-0-4. Szabados also appeared in one game with the Tri-City Americans of the WHL.
She also played five years of college hockey with Northern Alberta Institute of Technology Ooks. Last year, she set a league record in for the lowest goals-against average (1.58) and led the Ooks to their first championship in 16 years. Szabados stopped 30 of 31 shots in the finals. Cottonmouths captain Kyle Johnson, forward Jordan Draper and defenceman Andy Willigar are all former teammates with NAIT.
“I am very excited to get a world-class athlete that has competed and has faced, high-pressured situations,” Cottonmouths head coach Jerome Bechard said in a statement. “Shannon has won at every level she has played, in women’s hockey or men’s hockey.”
“She won a championship with NAIT last year alongside Andy Willigar and Jordan Draper so I know she can compete at this level,” Bechard said. “We are working on her immigration, and we are looking to sign her officially Thursday, where she will be backing up (starting goalie Andrew) Loewen.”
“She will play when she feels comfortable and situated.”
Szabados also practiced with the Edmonton Oilers last week, when the team needed another goalie after trading away Ilya Bryzgalov and waiting for new arrival Victor Fasth. She was impressive according to reports.
“Maybe (we took it easy) the first couple of shots, then you find out that she’s good enough to handle it,” Oilers forward Taylor Hall told the Edmonton Sun. “She was good. She’s obviously not as big as some of the NHL goalies are now, but she can move around the net really well.
“She surprised me with a few of the saves she made. She easily held her own, it was fun to watch.”
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