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Estelle Duvin (26) dribbles the puck around her own goal in the middle of the game. Actually, that would be a sporting sin that would make any coach white hot. But the Frenchwoman is still smiling from behind the bars of her helmet. This scene does not take place in a serious competition, but rather during the “Mätchle” at the Top Scorer Kids Day in the PostFinance Arena in Bern. Duvin’s team consists of seven juniors who registered for the event and were selected by draw. On the other side are also seven young players – and Dominik Kahun (28).
Duvin and Kahun have one thing in common: they are both the PostFinance top scorers at SC Bern – Duvin for women, Kahun for men. In the National League for men, the famous jerseys have been awarded to the best point scorers of the teams for 22 seasons; This is the first time this season for the ladies. Normally, PostFinance’s top scorers in our competitions come from Canada, Sweden, maybe Finland – and Switzerland. The second thing Duvin and Kahun have in common is that they are major exceptions in this respect: she is French, he is German.
It turns out that “Team Duvin” usually wins against “Team Kahun”. Both always take some time before the match to go to the children and explain a few things to them. The tactical direction? Kahun laughs after the event and says: “Then I would have explained it poorly…”
“There was a lot of fun”
The disappointment is of course just an act, because the focus of this event is on the joy of the young players. SCB’s ice hockey stars patiently pose for selfies and sign autographs on cards and shirts. Duvin summarizes: “It was a lot of fun playing with the kids.”
Ultimately, young people are also the major beneficiaries of the traditional PostFinance Top Scorer campaign: for every scorer point collected by the 14 male jersey wearers, 300 francs are invested in various projects to promote young talent – for example in equipment for the hockey school or training camp. For women, a total of 150,000 francs will be distributed among the eight teams. So if Kahun has a good evening and collects, for example, three scorer points, he quickly collects 900 francs. “That’s exactly why it’s so great to wear the jersey,” says Kahun. However, he also sees a dark side: “The opponents immediately recognize that you are the best scorer – and play against you accordingly.”
At the time of training, Estelle Duvin is not only the best point scorer at SCB, but in the entire league. “The special thing about the PostFinance Top Scorer shirt: everyone sees it – except me – because I wear it.” In the beginning it was very special not to play with your usual jersey number. “But you quickly get used to it.”
Estelle Duvin and many of her teammates also had to get used to new things in preparation for the season. Last season, the Frenchwoman played for Bomo Thun and reached the play-off final. The team is now integrated into the traditional club SC Bern. The home and training facility was once called the Grabengut artificial ice rink, but today it is the PostFinance Arena. «The main difference is the infrastructure that we can take advantage of: weight room or large and beautiful locker rooms. And the feeling of being able to play and train in one of the largest stadiums in Europe.”
Often the same game plan
In a stadium where her male “PostFinance Top Scorer” counterpart Dominik Kahun was already keeping an eye on the women, even as he added apologetically: “It’s hard to go to the games. The women often play on the same days as us. Then it is of course not possible to attend a match. But before we traveled to Biel for the away match at the beginning of November, the women played at home against Ambri in the afternoon. I was able to look a bit.”
Having a former NHL player like Dominik Kahun as a spectator is one of the latest anecdotes from Estelle Duvin’s career. For women, France is at about the same level as for men: around 10th in the world rankings. However, only ten countries are allowed to participate in the World Cup in the top division. That’s why France is a hitchhiking nation and was relegated to the lower house again last winter, even though Duvin scored two of France’s five goals.
She studied in the US and Canada and played college hockey there, then played two seasons in Finland for Turku before coming to the Canton of Bern, where she is now also playing in her second year. It doesn’t even come from the French Alpine region, but from the Dunkirk region on the North Sea, just a few kilometers from the Belgian border. Those who come from there are more likely to become cyclists than hockey players. From there, her path took her through the young talent development program Pôle France Féminin.
She recalls, “I was once a junior who looked up to the hockey stars. It’s great that my path has now led me here to Bern.” And in the shirt of a PostFinance top scorer.
Source : Blick
I’m Emma Jack, a news website author at 24 News Reporters. I have been in the industry for over five years and it has been an incredible journey so far. I specialize in sports reporting and am highly knowledgeable about the latest trends and developments in this field.
