Maybe it was the endearing experience of having pucks fired at her unprotected legs as a 5-year-old goalie, but the ties that bind Ashley Jaffray to her big brother Jason are stronger than any hockey net.

Their shared love of hockey as youngsters has continued into adulthood as Ashley, 22, is an assistant coach of the University of Manitoba Bisons women's team and Jason, 26, is a left-winger with the American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose.

"Family means everything to me, it always has and he's my only brother so I want to make him proud," said Ashley, who is also the assistant marketing coordinator for Bison Sports. "It's kind of like my first step into real life, so to have my brother and his wife here to help me with new things and knowing I have two of my best friends to come home to, that's a real comfort. But to be able to share in the excitement of my brother's career is just huge for me."

Those "two best friends" became three last year which is what brought Ashley to Winnipeg in the first place. Mere months out of university, Ashley has taken a new career path in the same city, in the same line of work and living under the same roof as Jason, his wife Michelle and their baby daughter Kennedy.

"I was a very protective brother growing up so with the chance to have her live closer to me, I felt like I could do something if she needed to be helped out in any way," said Jason, who has been called up twice this season to the Vancouver Canucks and has appeared in 16 Canucks games. He suffered an upper body injury during Sunday's Moose game and is considered day-to-day.

"We've just always gotten along," Jason said. "I haven't met too many girls that want to win as much as she does. She's got the same drive I had growing up. She was in the same situation as me, nothing really came easy to us, we've always had to work harder than the next person to get to the next level."

Ashley and Jason have also shared a devastating loss. Their older brother Steven died at age 14 in a farm accident when Ashley was just seven years old and Jason 11.

"Losing our brother made us very close, we've always supported each other," Jason said.

"There's not a day that goes by that we both don't think about our older brother," Ashley said.

After Kennedy was born Feb. 3, 2007, Ashley traveled to Winnipeg that week from Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. to see the baby. While in town she met with Bisons head coach Jon Rempel about a possible coaching position. When she graduated two months later with her degree in broadcast journalism and four straight all-academic team recognitions, she made a beeline for Winnipeg.

"We have no family here so I thought I could maybe be of some help and Michelle and I have been best friends since she and Jason met when he lived with her family," Ashley said, noting Michelle's family billeted Jason when he played for the Western Hockey League's Kootenay Ice (1998-2002). "Jason and Michelle are amazing parents and sometimes I just sit there in amazement that they've brought this incredible little person into the world and I get to be a part of that life."

Ashley is the ultimate aunt. She knows when Kennedy started to crawl, took her first steps and helped plan her birthday. But the former Quinnipiac sniper is also the ultimate role model for Bison players.

"She has just finished going through what they're all going through right now and for them to see that she was a successful student athlete and has gone into the work force and is being successful, they really see her as someone to emulate," said Rempel, whose Bisons won the bronze medal March 9 at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship with Ashley assisting behind the bench.

Manitoba's senior women's hockey scene has benefited from Ashley's choice to make Winnipeg her home. As a Manitoban, she joined Manitoba's senior women's hockey team and won the 2008 Esso Women's Nationals in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Ashley scored two goals in the gold-medal final to lift Manitoba to its first medal in the 27-year history of the national senior women's hockey championship.

Each summer, Ashley and Jason work at Edge Hockey Schools, including one hosted by the Moose in Winnipeg in August. They've played on the same team during the instructors' game.

"If he sets me up and I don't score, I never hear the end of it," Ashley said, laughing.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca