Women’s hockey pioneers face off on PTE stage

You probably haven’t heard of the Preston Rivulettes, but nearly a century ago, they were considered by many to be the best hockey team in Canada.

Not the best women’s hockey team but the best hockey team, period.

Throughout the 1930s, the team was revered for its on-ice dominance, “a smooth-working hockey machine” and the “perennial rulers” of the Dominion Women’s Amateur Hockey Association, per The Canadian Press.

Of the estimated 350 games the club played, historical records show it lost fewer than 10 times.

So when the Winnipeg Olympics — led by Marge Lumsden, Winnie Fullerton, Maj Topp and Maureen Gault, whose husband, coach Sam Southern, has a Winnipeg arena named after him — faced off against the Rivulettes in the 1937, 1938 and 1939 championships, the local skaters faced an uphill battle.

Inducted last December into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame, the Olympics — like the Rivulettes — broke the ice for generations of women athletes after them.

Without the astounding netminding of Olympics backstop Marguerite Hoban, local hockey fans might never have learned the name Sami Jo Small.

The undertold, underappreciated and nearly forgotten pioneers of women’s hockey take centre ice in the opening production of the 2026 season at Prairie Theatre Exchange, where the puck drops on Canadian playwright Tracey Power’s Glory tonight.

Putting those dominant Rivulettes teams in the spotlight, Power chose to highlight two pairs of real-life sisters — the Ranscombes and the Schmucks — in her script, which follows the skaters as they seek victory and respect for their athletic endeavours.

Directed by Mariam Bernstein, the power-play features choreographed hockey scenes strategized by Victoria Exconde: if any performers drop the gloves, their fights are co-ordinated by Shannon Guile.

When Bernstein was drafting her team, she didn’t mind selecting a few rookies: Cora Matheson’s (Hilda Ranscombe) hockey experience extends to her brothers shooting pucks at her in the living room when she was six, while Katie Welham and Jada Rifkin knew even less about Canada’s favourite game.

“I had never seen a hockey game or even picked up a hockey stick before this show,” says Welham, who plays the family-driven Helen Schmuck.

So last week, Matheson, Welham, Rifkin and Emily Meadows, who plays goaltender Nellie Ranscombe, decided to engage in some scouting, visiting the Canada Life Centre to see the Winnipeg Jets take on the Colorado Avalanche.

“The most surprising part of watching that hockey game was how theatrical the experience was,” says Rifkin, a Toronto-born actor who appeared in last season’s Winnipeg Jewish Theatre production of Job. “The refs came bursting onto the ice like a choreographed dance, and the audience was so into it.”

“I was getting very, very invested in the game, watching the goalies react to catching the puck,” adds Rifkin, whose character, Marm Schmuck, faces antisemitism in her pursuits of a professional life off-ice.

“I would say we were maybe more invested than the average sportsgoers,” adds Welham. “Like, ‘OK, how are they moving their sticks? What is the exact stance that they’re in during a face-off?’ Just trying to mimic all of their movements so we can create that truth on stage.”

There are no actual skates in Glory, but the stakes are high, as the players face the usual culprits — sexism, marginalization, racism — both on and off the ice.

And while frozen gameplay was out of the question for PTE’s Cherry Karpyshin Mainstage, the production mimics the high-energy atmosphere of a hockey game through intricate swing dancing, replacing high sticks with high kicks.

That teamwork is a bit more familiar to Rifkin and Welham, who both grew up in the world of competitive dance.

Both actors say that the feminist themes of Power’s script resonated with them, especially when assessing the challenges still faced by women and girls seeking representation and equity in sport today.

In 2026, over 120,000 women and girls registered to play hockey nationally, according to Hockey Canada. Meanwhile, the fourth season of the upstart Professional Women’s Hockey League will begin on Dec. 5.

Winnipeg has yet to receive its own PWHL franchise, but at an official takeover game in March between the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge, the Canada Life Centre welcomed a sold-out crowd of 15,225.

During the third period, the fans let the league know how it felt about Manitobans Jocelyne Larocque and Kati Tabin being unable to play for their true home squad. “We want a team,” they chanted at the downtown arena.

Until then, those fans might look across the street to PTE if looking for something to cheer about.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca