Sonja van der Bliek

Sonja van der Bliek is a women’s hockey goaltender that was selected by the Brampton Thunder in the 2013 CWHL Draft.

Playing career
She would compete in the PWHL with the Toronto Jr. Aeros. With the club, she would capture a bronze medal in the 2006 Provincial Championships and a gold medal in 2007.

NCAA
As a member of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers from 2007 to 2011, she was the team’s Most Valuable Player in 2009 and 2011. Having graduated with a record of 51-50-15, she is the all-time program record holder in games played, wins, saves, minutes and shutouts.

During the 2008-09 ECAC playoffs, she would stop 63 of 64 shots in a two-game sweep of Princeton. In the ECAC semifinals, she made 48 saves in a 3-2 overtime victory against the Harvard Crimson. In two consecutive seasons (2008-09, 2009-10), she would play in 35 games. Her cumulative win-loss record for those two campaigns was 33-28-9.

CWHL
She made her CWHL debut on November 2, 2013 against the defending Clarkson Cup champion Boston Blades. She posted 35 saves and played two periods of shutout hockey in a visceral 2-1 loss.

Her first CWHL win came on November 10 contest against the Calgary Inferno. Of note, the game went into a shootout and van der Bliek denied all three Inferno shooters, Jenna Cunningham, Danielle Stone and Julie Paetsch in a 3-2 win.

Personal
In high school, she was a two-sport star, also competing in soccer. She is a goalie coach at Intech Skills and has also served as the Director of Ticket Sales for the Central Hockey League’s Brampton Beast.

Awards and honors

 * ECAC All-Academic: 2008, 2009
 * ECAC Hockey Championship All-Tournament Team: 2009
 * Patty Kazmaier Award Nominee: 2010
 * RPI Team MVP: 2009 and 2011