Two former University of Maine women’s ice hockey teammates are making history on Friday night at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.
Twenty-nine-year-old winger Tereza Vanisova and 28-year-old goalie Carly Jackson are on the rosters of two first-year franchises in the Professional Women Hockey League, and their teams are facing off against each other in their mutual opening game.
Vanisova plays for the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Jackson plays for the Seattle Torrent, and the expansion teams are facing off against each other Friday night in their mutual opener at 7 p.m. Pacific Time in Vancouver.
Vanisova played for the Ottawa Charge last season and reached the Walter Cup finals, where the Charge was beaten by the Minnesota Frost three games to one in the best-of-five series. All four games went to overtime with the final score being 2-1.
Jackson was a back-up goalie for the Toronto Sceptres and appeared in one regular season game and one playoff game.
Vancouver and Seattle are the seventh and eighth franchises in the third-year league, joining Minnesota, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, New York and Boston.
Vanisova was Ottawa’s leading scorer and had 15 goals and seven assists for 22 points in 30 games for the Charge last season. She led the team in goals and points.
The Czechia national team player signed a two-year deal with Vancouver in June.
This will be her sixth pro season. She previously played a year in Sweden’s top hockey league, in the now defunct National Women’s Hockey League and Premier Hockey Federation before signing with Montreal in the PWHL. She was traded to Ottawa two seasons ago.
Vanisova won three Isobel Cup championships in the Premier Hockey Federation and scored the game-winning overtime goal for the Toronto Six vs. Minnesota to claim the Isobel Cup in 2023.
She is also known for a fight she was involved in with Boston’s Jill Saulnier. It was the first fight in PWHL history.
Vanisova is UMaine’s all-team leading scorer with 129 points on 63 goals and 66 assists in 129 games from the 2016-17 to 2019-20 seasons.
Jackson has primarily been a back-up goalie, playing in 29 PHF games over three seasons and posting a 12-15 record, a 3.05 goals-against average and a .908 save percentage.
In her UMaine career, spanning 2015-16 to 2019-2020, she compiled a 45-55-18 record, a 2.15 GAA and a .923 save percentage.
She had 10 shutouts.
