N.S. athlete hopeful Professional Women’s Hockey League will spark new opportunities

History is being made as the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is now underway.

Players in the Maritimes are hopeful the league will create new opportunities for female athletes.

Ashley Penney has been playing hockey since she was eight years old. She currently skates for the Saint Mary’s Huskies and says the PWHL is an inspiration.

“I’ve grown up watching Blayre Turnbull and Jill Saulnier, as a fellow Nova Scotian myself, and just to watch them get to play each other in the inaugural game this season was pretty special,” says Penney.

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In total, six women from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick are playing in the PWHL. The puck dropped on the league’s first game in front of a sold-out crowd on New Year’s Day.

Jill Saulnier made history as the first Nova Scotian to score a goal in the new league.

“It’s exciting to watch these new young females grow up and have this type of league to look up to and as a goal for them to reach,” Penney says. “When I was growing up we didn’t really have a league like that.”

Penney is hopeful the new league will shake things up. She says Europe has typically offered more female hockey programs for women to step into after college.

Huskies assistant coach Lisa MacLean agrees the new league will inspire younger generations.

“Not even just for university players, but people who are starting, like your little young TimBits, to know there’s an end goal if that’s what they want to strive to do in the future,” she says.

“That can be something they’re trying to attain just like little young boys are trying to get to the NHL.”

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MacLean has played alongside Turnbull.

“I know both Jill and Blayre personally,” she explains. “I had the opportunity to go to the Canada Games when I was eligible growing up. Blayre was our team captain at the time, so I was even a teammate of hers at one point, which was a great experience.”

For the young players chasing their dreams, Penney offers up some advice.

“Play as yourself, don’t try to be another type of player, you are who you are,” she says. “A coach is going to like you just for who you are if you keep working at it.”