Graduate ahead Emma Maltais (17) participated within the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship — and she or he gained gold medals in any respect 3 competitions. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | For the Lantern
While Ohio State gained its first NCAA girls’s ice hockey nationwide championship and 2nd WCHA championship closing season, graduate ahead and captain Emma Maltais earned gold medals.
After serving as Ohio State’s captain in her senior season in 2020-21, Maltais gained her first call-up to Hockey Canada Centralization Camp in summer season of 2021.
She stepped clear of Ohio State to take part within the 2021 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship, the 2022 Winter Olympic Games and the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship — profitable gold medals in any respect 3 competitions.
“The six months that I was trying out for the Olympic team were the hardest but the most rewarding I’ve ever been a part of,” Maltais stated. “Year after year, you do go to camp, you do try out, but that step from development to the senior team is a major step that requires a lot of commitment, a lot of choices in summer training, to try and put you ahead of people.”
Maltais is returning to Ohio State with extra than simply her medals. She stated the experience she received as a fourth-line participant with Team Canada will assist her relate to her teammates extra as she reclaims the captaincy at Ohio State.
“I think playing a different role on the national team made me understand what people go through at different levels,” Maltais stated. “I had never experienced having less playing time, being that role on a team, really seeing my value in terms of being a good teammate, rather than always being the one producing or being on the ice.”
Head trainer Nadine Muzerall stated one explanation why for giving Maltais the position of workforce captain comes from what she realized from her older teammates at the Canadian nationwide workforce.
“When she’s with Team Canada versus here, the mouth was shut,” Muzerall stated. “She’s listening to some of the greatest in the world and her ears are open. So, I think that you learn a lot more when you’re not talking as much.”
While Maltais would possibly not were at the ice for the Buckeyes closing season, she used to be found in University Park, Pennsylvania, as a spectator after they took house this system’s first-ever nationwide championship.
“Of course, you want to be there in those moments of victory and to be a part of it, but they made me feel a part of it,” Maltais stated. “Over the last four or five years, the program has grown immensely, and I think every player who has been a part of it in those last five, six years should feel that they were a part of that win. They supported me going to accomplish my dream, so I was doing the exact same thing for them.”
Senior ahead Jennifer Gardiner, who performed for Hockey Canada’s U18 workforce and National Development Team, stated she and her Buckeye teammates “definitely felt her presence on the rink” in spite of Maltais’ absence closing season.
Gardiner additionally stated Maltais’s stage of competitiveness is one in every of her biggest strengths as a teammate and chief.
“She focuses in on such little details all the time,” Gardiner stated. “It’s so cool just to be able to play with a player like her and pick up on little things that she does. She really pushes me every day to be faster, be better, have a better shot.”
After profitable gold medals, Maltais stated she hopes her experience can assist her teammates succeed in equivalent heights.
“I just get a different opportunity now to introduce them to my friends, make them feel more comfortable, tell them stories about what it’s like,” Maltais stated. “You’re so intimidated as a young kid going and participating in those events, because those are your idols. So, I really get the chance to kind of bring them in and give them advice.”
Although each participant needs to win championships, Maltais’s choice to go back to the Buckeyes for a 5th season revolves extra round her reference to Ohio State and her teammates than the possibility of glory.
“Loyalty is one of my core values, and I think that Ohio State has done a lot for me, and I want to be loyal to Ohio State,” Maltais stated. “You can’t turn down a fifth year at an institution like this, so I just think that it’s not only good for my development, but it’s also good because of everything that has helped me really become who I am in my career and as a person here.”