After a season-ending injury took her off the ice, Emerance Maschmeyer is back in blue

When Emerance Maschmeyer skated on to the ice inside Vancouver’s Pacific Coliseum last Friday, it was a return to game action that’s been nine months and a lot of rehabilitation in the making.

Last March, the goaltender, then with the Ottawa Charge, received a standing ovation from the home crowd for becoming the first PWHL goaltender to reach 1,000 saves.

Moments later, Maschmeyer had to be helped off the ice after sustaining a lower-body injury while making a save.

That injury ended what had been a spectacular season for Maschmeyer. She didn’t know it at the time, but it would also be the last game she’d play for the Ottawa Charge.

Gwyneth Philips took over the starting job in Maschmeyer’s absence and ran with it all the way to the Walter Cup final, where she was named playoff MVP, despite the Charge’s loss to the Frost.

Emerance Maschmeyer returns to Ottawa as a Vancouver Goldeneye

When the expansion draft process came around, and Ottawa could only protect three players to start, the team chose Philips over Maschmeyer.

“Gwyn was playing such great hockey,” Maschmeyer told CBC Sports. “They made a great choice by protecting her.”

One door closing led to a new opportunity: the chance to grow women’s hockey in western Canada with the Vancouver Goldeneyes. Maschmeyer wanted to stay in Canada, and the goaltender from Bruderheim, Alta. was one of Vancouver GM Cara Gardner Morey’s first signings.

“She’s outstanding,” Gardner Morey said about her starting goaltender. “Great leader. She’s a mother which I think brings a lot of outside perspective, which is great for our younger players, too. But she is unbelievably athletic in the net. Extremely detailed. Her work ethic is off the charts.”

Last season, it took Maschmeyer a