Lets Play Hockey

On valentines day, we attended a hockey game.  Our granddaughters Savannah and Madison were playing.  They both play on the same team this year, Girls 12 and under, yes Savannah is 13..but she didn't make the cut off date.  Paige plays also, but didn't have a game on Sunday.

 Madison

All three of the girls love hockey.  It is what they do in the winter, between practices, games and tournaments..it is an all consuming sport. In the summer they attend skills clinics and hockey camps. This is their third year of playing girls hockey,when they lived in Nebraska there wasn't a girls hockey program. 

 Savannah

The first girls hockey game was played in Barrie, Ontario in 1892.  However it took more than a hundred years for Women's Hockey to finally appear at the Olympics in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.

 I talked with the girls, I asked them  if they thought they could ever play in the Olympic Games..they thought so..but Madison and Paige want to play on different teams when they go to college..so they can "cream" each other.  There are two sisters on the Olympic Team this year..the Lamoureux sisters from Grand Forks, ND.  In fact there are five women on the Olympic team that are from Minnesota or North Dakota.

 Savannah is a bit of a scrapper.  She would like to be able to do full body checks, sometimes she pushes the limit and incurs a penalty.   Physical checks are a way to take out, slow down or interrupt the other teams possession of the puck.  Checking is not allowed in Girls Hockey.

 Madison is in the back of this photo..getting ready to bite the dust..ice.

I am not sure what positions the girls play. I think they are Wings..maybe.  When they are playing they fall down, I hold my breath until they scramble to their feet. I probably spend way too much time trying to photograph them.  Do you know how hard it is to photograph moving objects?  I love that they both were wearing black helmets..it was much easier to keep track of them.

They won their game, but even if they hadn't they would have lined up to bump fists with the refs, the coaches and the opposing team..one thing that they have learned by playing a team sport is teamwork and sportsmanship.  Oh ya, and you should always have an extra hair band!

Hockey= Invented by boys, perfected by girls:)