PLAYER PROFILE – Sarah Nurse was born on January 4, 1995, in Burlington, Ontario. The 5 ft 9 in forward has been around the game for a long time. Nurse also has other famous people to come from her family that are well-known athletes in North America.
Sarah Nurse: Toronto Sceptres’ Forward
Childhood
Nurse, born from a black Trinidadian father and a white mother, started skating at the age of three and began playing ice hockey at five-years-old. She was inspired to play in the Olympics after watching the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics. Nurse’s favourite quote came from her grandfather (Source: Olympic):
“You do it, you die, or you run away.”
There is a lot of accomplished athletes in Nurse’s family. This generation of sports athletes include both her cousins, who play at an extremely high level. One of them is point guard, Kia Nurse, a mainstay with the Canadian women’s basketball team, and currently plays for the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. She also has a cousin who plays as a defenceman for the Edmonton Oilers, Darnell Nurse. These three professional athletes share a bond with each other as all three of them are of similar age as commented by Sarah Nurse (Source: NHLPA on December 26, 2023):
Sarah also has two uncles that had noteworthy careers, Richard Nurse was a wide receiver for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and her other uncle, Donovan McNabb, was a quarterback in the NFL, and is most known for his time with the Philadelphia Eagles.
At the amateur level, Nurse succeeded, as she won a bronze medal in the 2010 OFSAA championships, and a silver medal the year after. She also scored goals, leading the Stoney Creek Jr. Sabres of the 2010–11 Provincial Women’s Hockey League in goals scored and was second in goals for the team in the 2011-12 PWHL season. She won bronze as an alternate captain in that same 2011-12 PWHL season.
Individually, her 2012–13 season might have been the best, as she broke the record for most goals scored in a single season with 35.
Sarah Nurse: Collegiate Career with the Wisconsin Badgers
Nurse had a successful collegiate career with the Wisconsin Badgers. In her 2013-14 rookie season, she had 21 points, 11 goals and ten assists. This included game-winning assists in both the Minn. State (Feb. 22) and the 3-1 win over St. Cloud State game and had the game-winning goal against the team’s 4-0 series-concluding win (Jan. 3-4).
She improved on those stats in her 2014-15 sophomore year. This time she had 15 goals and ten assists. Her 15 goals tied her for second on the Badgers goals list. Some big games for Nurse included against North Dakota (Dec. 5) with an overtime goal and had a goal and an assist in a 3-3 draw at North Dakota on October 31.
Then, in the 2015-16 season, she played 36 games and scored 25 goals and had 15 assists. This is a big jump from the previous two seasons for Nurse. She also played a big role in big playoff series games, with two goals and an assist during the Badgers’ sweep of Lindenwood from November 20-22, two goals in a series sweep against the Dartmouth (November 27-28) and a goal in a sweep against Minnesota. Also, Nurse scored a goal in Wisconsin’s WCHA semifinal victory over Minnesota Duluth (March 5) and a 6-0 NCAA quarterfinal win over Mercyhurst (March 12).
Lastly, she became just the fourth player to get multiple short-handed goals in one game when she scored two consecutive short-handed goals against the St. Cloud State on October 16.
In the 2016-17 season, Nurse was named an alternate captain for Wisconsin, in that season she had 25 goals and 28 assists. She had a career-high four goals in North Dakota on Oct. 23, 2016, which helped her get the WCHA Player of the Week on Oct. 25. Also, she became the first player for the Wisconsin Badgers to get a hat-trick (also added an assist and got the WCHA Player of the Week honours). She also had another game with a hat-trick and two more games where she had three assists.
Her honours with the team includes being on the “Second-Team All-American (2016-17), All-WCHA Second Team (2016-17), All-WCHA Third Team (2015-16) WCHA Offensive Player of the Week (Jan. 12, 2016, Dec. 6, 2016) American Sports Network Player of the Week (Dec. 6, 2016), 2015 WCHA Final Faceoff Most Outstanding Player, WCHA All-Tournament Team (2015), All-WCHA Rookie Team (2013-14), and the WCHA Player of the Month (February, March 2017).”
Source for everything with the Wisconsin Badgers: Wisconsin Badgers – Sarah Nurse
Club Career
Toronto Furies (2018-19)
Nurse’s first major club team was in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL). She was drafted by her local team, the Toronto Furies. Her first goal came against the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays on October 17, 2018. In that season, the Furies made the playoffs but lost in the Clarkson Cup playoffs to the eventual Clarkson Cup champions, the Calgary Inferno, in the semi-final round. Unfortunately, Nurse’s first season in the CWHL ended up being the CWHL’s last as the league folded in 2019. This is what Nurse had to say about the rumours of the league eventually folding (Source: Kristina Rutherford of Sportsnet):
“Honestly, I can’t believe this is something I have to think about,” she wrote. “We finished a record season with the Furies, I had incredible relationships with my teammates and staff and we were already planning for next season. Things were exciting in Toronto, and it felt like the rug had been pulled out from under us.”
As written by Dulcedo, Nurse played a huge role in the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) as noted:
Nurse would become one of the driving forces and public faces of players who played a role in the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association (PWHLPA) in 2020, which is a labour union for the present-day PWHL. The PWHLPA, also served as a stopgap between the CWHL and the PWHL in terms of games being played, with Dream Gap Tours games being played from 2019-23.
Toronto Sceptres (2023-Present)
Nurse was one of the three players signed in a pre-draft for the Toronto Sceptres, alongside captain Blayre Turnball and also Renata Fast. Nurse talked about what it meant to be a part of history with the PWHL approximately a week before the then named Toronto PWHL team played their first-ever game (Source: Chris Lomon of the NHLPA):
In the 2023-24 PWHL season, Nurse scored 11 goals and dished out 12 assists.
And just recently, against the Ottawa Charge, Maggie Connors talks about the type of talent Nurse has (Source: yahoo! sports):
“We get to see that every day in practice,” said Toronto’s Maggie Connors, of Nurse’s skill. “She’s like an unbelievable player, so it’s just awesome when everyone else kind of gets to see that. We see it all the time.”
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Hockey Canada
Nurse had a stellar career with the national team, as Troy Ryan, coach of both the Sceptres and Canada women’s ice hockey team, said this after Nurse scored the OT winner against Sweden in the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship (Source: Myles Dichter of CBC Sports):
“She’s trying to find ways that she can be even better this week and we’re thinking she’s playing great,” he said. “She’s constantly trying to improve and grow her game and she’s just a two-way, 200-foot, all those typical quotes you can give on players.”
Nurse made her debut with the national with the 2015 4 Nations Cup, where Canada finished as runners-up of the competition.
What might be more noteworthy is Nurse’s accomplishments in the Olympics. She scored her first Olympic goal in a game against the U.S. in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The most noteworthy tournament for Nurse though was in the 2022 Winter Olympics. In that Olympic Games, Nurse broke the points record for any single Olympic Games with five goals and 13 assists. This included the Gold Medal game against the U.S., where Nurse had a goal and an assist in a tight 3-2 win over the United States of America.
Significance to the Game Off-The-Ice
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Nurse has done a lot for the game off-the-ice. She played a huge role in the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) and is currently part of the executive committee for the PWHLPA, the league’s labour union (Source: Ian Kennedy of The Hockey News). This is what Erin Ambrose said about Nurse (Source: Sport Chek YouTube Account):
“Sarah Nurse is a fantastic hockey player, but she is an even better person.”
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Nurse has also been a player that is promoting girls’ ice hockey across the country. This is what she said according to Briony Smith of The Kit:
Sarah Nurse plans to expand on Nursey night and do more programs for kids to access and play the game of ice hockey. The Sceptres will travel to face the Minnesota Frost at the Xcel Energy Center. The Minnesota game will be on Prime and the FanDuel Sports Network, while the Montreal game will be shown and televised on TSN and RDS.
The Toronto Sceptres will face the Minnesota Frost on the road on January 28 at 7:00pm EST. They will then end the month on January 30 against the Montreal Victoire at the Place Bell at 7:00pm EST.
Photo Credit: Toronto Sceptres X Account on January 22, 2025.