WHKY: Bergesen shines with Team Norway, bringing defensive excellence to MRU

After almost two years of non-competition play or even without consistent training, we've seen how hard it can be for athletes to return to play. Injuries, assumptions and high expectations in an athlete's return have all too often impacted their performance making the 2021-22 season more challenging than we thought.

But, in some cases like Emma Bergesen, the 2021-22 season of sport was a roaring success.

Bergesen, a 5'5 defenceman hailing from Stavanger, Norway not only excelled as a Mount Royal Cougar on the women's hockey team, she also doubled as Team Norway's strongest defender in the women's hockey Olympic Qualifiers and World Championships tournaments.

Born and raised in Norway, Bergesen has been a part of the country's national women's hockey program since around the age of 15. Her first appearance with Team Norway in the 2014-15 U18 World Junior Championships Division I (WJC-18 D1), saw her earn a silver medal. From there, her accolades continued to accumulate.

Earning bronze at WJC-18 D1 in 2016-17 accompanied by the award of most assists by a defenceman and another bronze medal in 2018-19 at the World Championship Division I tournament, Bergesen and Team Norway continue to find success. During this time, Bergesen also made the transition overseas to play with the Ontario Hockey Academy prior to committing to MRU.

As she made the transition from youth hockey to university hockey during the winter seasons, Bergesen still held strong to her commitments to Team Norway. Additional training and camps in the summer, mid-year tournaments that include Olympic Qualifiers and World Championships all on top of academics throughout the year has proved to be a challenging, yet rewarding process for the blueliner.

Yet, she seems to do it with ease and humility.

"I'm really honoured to be in the position I am with Team Norway," Bergesen said. "Moving to play in Canada really opened my eyes to how far an Olympic dream for female Canadian hockey players is because the country is so big and there's so much competition. It means a lot to me to know that I could be close to that dream and the work to get there is absolutely worth it."

This year in particular, Bergesen's success shone through not only as a defender for MRU, but especially for Team Norway.

In her rookie season with MRU, Bergesen was named to the Canada West and U SPORTS All-Rookie teams, capped off with a trip to nationals prior to Covid-19 shutting down the 2019-20 season. This year, Bergesen finished seventh overall in team scoring with 10 points (2G-8A) in 20 games, and second overall in defensive scoring for MRU. Bergesen was proud of the steps she took in the growth of her game as a Cougar, but also the program's development.

"This year was a big step for both of us," Bergesen said. "I grew more as a person and as a player at MRU and I felt a really big change in my own motivation and drive to be in the best position possible.

"As a team, being ranked second overall in Canada and winning the Canada West league in regular season was huge. We started a culture of winning on our team and that made a big difference in our performance. Obviously we didn't get the results we wanted, but it gave us a lot to learn from."

Setbacks and adversity weren't new to Bergesen either. In November, Emma traveled back to Europe to compete in the women's hockey Olympic Qualifications to determine which teams would earn a bid into the Olympics.

Although Team Norway played well against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in the qualifying tournament, they ultimately couldn't pull off the wins needed to secure a spot in the 2022 Olympics.

"It was hard knowing we played well and we were close to the Olympics," Bergesen said. "But, we brought a lot of that experience from the Olympic Qualifiers to the next tournament, proving we could compete among these Olympic-level teams."

Bergesen also brought that sentiment back when she returned to MRU for the remainder of the season. Accomplishing their team goal of winning the Canada West league was a big achievement for the Cougars, doing so as the first women's hockey team in MRU Canada West/ U SPORTS history.

Although the Cougars were eventually defeated in the semi-finals of Canada West playoffs, that adversity continued to push Bergesen onto the next challenge: World Championships.

Hosted in Angers, France, the tournament took place between April 24-30. Bergesen and Team Norway performed well in round-robin competition with a 7-1 win over the Netherlands, a 2-1 defeat of Slovakia and a narrow 4-3 overtime loss against Austria. At the end of round-robin, Norway was in a second-place position to face Team France in the gold-medal game.

"We knew that the sold-out arena of 4,000+ people would be an incredible atmosphere and it's crazy for a female hockey player to experience that because it doesn't happen very often," Bergesen said of the final game.

"We were so close to reaching our final goal [of earning gold] and our odds had never been better. I was so ready for it and thought it was such a cool experience. I didn't feel nervous and I knew I was ready to compete in a big game like this.

The crowd was so loud and I couldn't hear my D-partner calling to me, but I was able to really tune it out and just focus on my game. But I think it got to some of the other girls on my team."

Unfortunately, with home-ice advantage, Team France was able to secure gold with a 4-1 win over Team Norway. But, just because her team lost, didn't mean success was over for Bergesen.

"When I was standing on the blueline after we had lost, I was pissed," Bergesen reflected. "But, then they called my name as the top defender of the tournament."

Bergesen had been recognized as a player of the game during their match against Austria, earned five assists in the tournament which also awarded her with the fourth place position in scoring, most assists in the tournament, most assists by a defenceman and most points by a defenceman. Yet, she was truly shocked to hear she was named the top defender at the end of competition.

"It was just wild for me to win that award because I was recognized ahead of girls that are much older than me and that I've always looked up to," Bergesen said. "I honestly did not see it coming and was so surprised. Growing up, I've never been the best and just felt I was still working towards an accomplishment like this.

"Getting that recognition and knowing that people see I'm doing a good job is really special. I had a couple points, but I wasn't really concerned about it and I was more in it for the team's performance. Also because we weren't able to compete regularly with Team Norway over the past few years because of Covid, my growth and confidence really showed for the team."

Now, with the confidence and recognition from World Championships, Bergesen is ready to apply it to her game at MRU.

"I want to bring back my experience of playing in such important games and take on a bigger role at MRU," Bergesen said. "Being able to stay calm and keep the focus when it is getting heated and the team is depending on everyone to play at their best is an area I know I can be depended on."

As for Team Norway, Bergesen is excited to regroup and focus on the next best steps for the team over the next two to four years as they prepare for the next Olympic Qualifiers.

"I know we are so close to entering into the same divisions of Team Canada and Team USA at the World Championships. We just need to take a few more steps to get there before the next set of competitions."

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Players Mentioned

#23 Emma Bergesen: Defence; 5' 5"; First Year

Players Mentioned

#23 Emma Bergesen
: 5' 5"; First Year
: Defence

Players Mentioned

#23 Emma Bergesen

Players Mentioned

#23 Emma Bergesen