How hard work on family farm led Emerance Maschmeyer to starting role with PWHL Ottawa

Erick Robertson remembers nine-year-old Emerance Maschmeyer setting a lofty goal for herself.

She wasn't even in high school yet, but Maschmeyer knew she wanted to play hockey for Harvard University.

"I've never had a nine year old ever have that as a goal or that much foresight or looking into the future," said Robertson, who runs Level Up Goaltending in Edmonton and coached Maschmeyer for years.

The Ivy League is exactly where Maschmeyer found herself a decade later, eventually breaking the Harvard women's hockey program's saves record, which she still holds.

But she didn't stop there. Next was an Olympic gold medal, a goal Maschmeyer achieved in 2022 after being cut from the 2018 roster.

Long the backup to Ann-Renée Desbiens on Team Canada, 29-year-old Maschmeyer now has the chance to chart her own path as the starting goaltender with Ottawa in the new Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). 

When Ottawa had the chance to sign three free agents ahead of the league's inaugural draft, Maschmeyer was one of them.

On that day in September, when three-year deals were announced for Maschmeyer and forwards Emily Clark and Brianne Jenner, Ottawa GM Mike Hirshfeld said the team believes Maschmeyer's best years in the net are ahead of her. But that's not the only reason why the team used one of its slots on her.

"We talked to a lot of people and they raved about her personality, they raved about her as a teammate and as a leader and again, that was critically important for us," Hirshfeld said in September.

Ottawa is the next chapter in a career built on hard work, and it all started on a big grain farm just outside Bruderheim, Alta.

About 1,300 people live in the small, tight-knit community outside Edmonton near where Maschmeyer grew up with her four siblings.

She remembers two seasons in Bruderheim: hockey season and farming season.

The Maschmeyer kids approached both with a work ethic. In the winter, they spent hours skating on a homemade rink on the farm. Their father designed a training program for them.

One night, her father told her she had to stay on the rink until she learned how to lift the puck while shooting. She tried and tried, but couldn't figure it out. Her siblings gathered around Maschmeyer, the fourth youngest, to show her how to do it.