Pro women’s hockey game inspirational

The game hadn’t started yet, but Emery Martens was already celebrating a win.

Wearing an oversized Marie-Philip Poulin jersey and a toothy grin, the six-year-old Teulon Tigers forward was feeling “very good” about her new souvenir: a puck flipped over the glass while the Montreal Victoire and Ottawa Charge were warming up ahead of the first-ever Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) game in Winnipeg.

Emery and mom Stephanie Martens were quick to snag tickets to the historic event when it was announced the PWHL’s Takeover Tour would be coming to town.

“It’s emotional,” said Stephanie, a lifelong hockey player who now coaches her daughter’s team. “(The game) has come a really long way and it’s getting recognized more and more and it makes everyone proud.

“These women are huge, huge role models.”

Canada Life Centre was awash with jerseys of every colour as 15,225 fans from club teams, provincial squads and beer leagues filled the stands during the sold-out Sunday night game.

Madison Friesen and her friends were among the first in the building when the doors opened. They drove in from Steinbach for the game — the shortest trip thus far for Friesen, who has travelled across Canada to watch Laura Stacey and Poulin play with the Victoire.

The PWHL, which is now in its third season, has been an inspiring development for the 17-year-old goalie, whose playing career is currently paused due to injury.

“I’ve played with guys all my life and my goal was always the NHL, but now there’s the PWHL to look up to,” Friesen said. “I think it’s so good for the younger girls to see that there is a future… you can actually play, this could be your job.”

Sporting hockey jerseys over long colourful dresses, Chloe Maendel and her teammates from the Baker Hutterite Colony were excited to watch Canadian Olympians take the ice, including hometown heroes Kati Tabin and Jocelyne Larocque.

They were also excited to represent Manitoba’s female Hutterite hockey community.

“It’s always fun to contradict the Hutterite stereotypes,” Maendel, 16, said with a laugh.

Hockey has been a generational sport for the girls, whose moms and aunts got them into the game as soon as they were old enough to skate.

Like many in the stands, the group had crafted homemade signs for Sunday’s games. On a yellow sheet of construction paper the words “Play Like A Girl” were scrawled in bubble letters and surrounded by photos of themselves and their favourite female athletes.

“This is me,” Alexa Maendel, 14, said, pointing to a photo of her celebrating in full hockey gear. “We had a tournament, there was about 90 boys and like six girls and I had the most goals out of all of them.”

Julie Koch, 34, and Krista Magotiaux, 33, were loading up on hats, sweaters and T-shirts at the merch store before heading to their seats to join the rest of the Shenarwhaligans (a Winnipeg women’s beer league team named for a portmanteau of Narwhals and Shennanigans).

It’s the second PWHL game the team has attended together.

“It’s really special, even being in the audience, the crowd at PWHL games are so much different than like a Jets game, no shade to them, but it’s a very femme-positive atmosphere,” said Koch.

“Women’s hockey is always so supportive and positive,” Magotiaux added.

The vibes were exceedingly positive inside the arena. Squeals of excitement sailed around the stands while Charge and Victoire players sped up and down the ice and crashed into one another. Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan blasted from the speakers between plays. The jumbotron was constantly alight with beaming faces and dancing bodies.

The PWHL has had a tangible impact on hockey in Manitoba well before its inaugural game in the province.

The Manitoba Women’s High School Hockey League (MWHSHL) has introduced a jailbreak rule — which allows a player serving a minor to break out of the penalty box if their team scores a shorthanded goal — inspired by the pros.

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“We thought it was such a cool thing, they’re seeing it on TV so why don’t we put it into our league?” said Brad Nechwediuk, president of the MWHSHL and coach of the Glenlawn Lions female hockey team, which became provincial champs last week.

Nechwediuk has also noticed an uptick in interest among high schoolers who are new to hockey. The Manitoba-wide league counted 29 teams this year, a new record he chalks up, in part, to excitement about the PWHL.

“We know representation can go a long way in anything in life. If you can see yourself there, then you can dream,” he said.

Judging by the cheers of “We want a team” that riccocheted around the arena, the dream is very much alive for Winnipeg hockey fans.

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Eva Wasney
Reporter

Eva Wasney has been a reporter with the Free Press Arts & Life department since 2019. Read more about Eva.

Every piece of reporting Eva produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.