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MacLeod captain at heart
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by Dave McGrath
Thursday, March 17, 2005
There are those team leaders who accept the “C” on their jerseys as not only a responsibility to be a leader, but to take the fate of the team on their shoulders and dictate how it performs.
For the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, senior defender Carla MacLeod is that kind of captain. She takes her role as captain of the Badgers to a different level, above and beyond what is expected. She is not only the vocal leader of the team and the player whom all the others follow and look to for answers on the ice, but the driving force of the team.
“Carla has great hockey sense and understands the game,” head coach Mark Johnson said. “She is almost like a coach on the ice with her ability to read plays and understand situations and [provide] that stability on the blue line and instill confidence in the other players.”
The senior has been much more than just a leader for the Badgers, however.
MacLeod has been a top performer on the ice for Wisconsin since first coming to Madison as a freshman. She played in 35 games and scored 25 points on two goals and 23 assists that year, making the WCHA all-tournament team and ranking third among defensemen in scoring.
MacLeod has continued to stand out in her play, being selected to the all-WCHA second team the past two seasons despite having to play in the defensive shadow of senior Molly Engstrom, the WCHA Defensive Player of the Year two years running.
She has also been a member of the Canadian National Team, either on the top squad or the under-22 team, since 1999, and should compete for the team in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
“She brings great skills to our team. Just being a leader and doing the little things that she does well, she is just so smart. If it is a big game, she is one of our big leaders. We rely on her to make us feel a lot better with the big games,” fellow senior defenseman Nicole Uliasz said, adding that MacLeod’s international experience has been a boon not only to MacLeod, but to the whole squad. “She brought back what she learned with the Canada team and brought it to us. That has been big.”
In the past few weeks, the combination of MacLeod’s leadership and talent has been on display, as her play has elevated as the games became more meaningful. This culminated in the Badgers’ run through the WCHA tournament, where MacLeod finished as the tournament’s second-leading scorer with three goals and had, perhaps, the performance of the tournament when she scored two goals in the final minute of play to erase a 2-0 deficit against the No. 1 team in the country, Minnesota.
“I like clutch situations, but I’d rather be on the other side where you are up two goals. As a captain you always hope you can come through in those big situations,” MacLeod said of her play in the clutch, but she added that her role as captain pushed her to step up, though her teammates stepped up their games, too.
“Anytime you are named captain it is an honor, obviously. When you’re out on the ice and you talk to the senior class in general, you see they are all very good leaders and they all want to step up.”
MacLeod’s collegiate career can now only be measured one game at a time, with the NCAA regional against Dartmouth the first possible ending point for MacLeod.
“I just want this season to end the right way and that is on top,” MacLeod said. “We can do it and it would be a great memory and tribute to all the players, especially the seniors.”
Although MacLeod will be finished at UW after this season, she will by no means be finished with hockey, as she will continue to play internationally as long as she is able. Another way of staying in the game could be open to her, however, once her playing career has finally drawn to a close.
“I would think she would think that she would probably look at that option, one day becoming a coach, but who knows,” said Johnson. “She certainly has the mindset and understanding of the game to be pretty good at it.”
