NAIT Ooks Natsumi Kurokawa
by ACAC Sports Writer Curtis J. Phillips
The 2018-2019 Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference Women's Hockey Championship best-of-five series is set as it will be a battle of Edmonton schools as the MacEwan University Griffins versus NAIT Ooks.
MacEwan is looking to a three-peat while the Ooks last won in 2015-2016.
In the semi-finals the Griffins needed three games to put away the Red Deer Queens, beating them in the opener 4-2, losing in the middle game of the series 2-1 and then skated to a 3-1 verdict in Game 3.
Chantal Ricker had two goals in the series win and Griffins net minder Sandy Helm made 61 saves.
Ooks beat Olds College Broncos 3-0 in the opener and 4-1 in game two of the best-of-three semi-finals.
Brittney Savard and Natsumi Kurokawa each had two goals in the series.
Kaitlyn Slator tended goal both games and made 27 saves.
A native of Koganei, a city of a city of 121,000 crammed into 11.30 kilometres into the western portion of Tokyo, Japan; Kurokawa first came to Canada in 2015-2016 to attend the Banff Hockey Academy.
"When I was in Japan (a member of Japan Under 18 team) I played hockey and I got Rookie of the Year," recalls Kurokawa, 22. "I wanted to go to a higher level and I was looking forward to playing in Canada as it was the best hockey in the world."
She was originally going to join the NAIT Ooks in 2016-2017 after her year in Banff but a family death delayed her enrollment.
Returning to Canada to join the NAIT Ooks for the 2017-2018 season, she faced two new challenges.
Not only was English a relatively new language for her but she made the decision to shift from her regular defenceman position to the forward line.
"I had never played forward but when I came to Canada I changed my position. I wanted to get to know more about playing forward."
Lacing up her first pair of skates in Grade 3, Kurokawa came by the sport naturally as her father Futshi Kurokawa coached the sport at the Ashikaga Institute of Technology.
It is through her father's passion for the sport that Kurokawa said she one day wants to coach hockey.
But her first goal is to play professional hockey in Europe.
"I have always had the dream to play women's hockey at its highest level and it is in Finland or Sweden that are famous for women's professional hockey."
Asked what her strength on the ice is, Kurokawa replied: "My strong point is skating and agility because my father taught me a lot of skating skills."
A fan of the sport, Kurokawa says her father "enjoys watching me play on ACACTV," and that her hobby may be a bit different from others in that, "I'm a weird person, in that I love to study."
MacEwan and Ooks played against each other six times during the ACAC regular season with NAIT taking the series 4-2 despite the Griffins outscoring them 8-7.
The best-of-five ACAC Women's Hockey Championships drop the puck Friday March 8, 2019 at 7 p.m. with MacEwan visiting the NAIT Ooks.