The solar eclipse that cut a path across the United States, including western New York, is not the only rare occurrence to hit the state recently. Hosting the IIHF Women’s World Championship is almost as rare of a phenomenon.
The last time the state hosted a World Championship was in 1994 in Lake Placid. Back then, as it is now, vying for the gold medal was a two-team race. Since the IIHF sanctioned a women’s tournament in 1990, only once has the final game not featured Canada taking on the United States for top honors.
As much as some things never seem to change, it’s safe to say that the women’s game of today bears little resemblance to those early days. The speed, skill and intensity demonstrated by all 10 teams that came to Utica to compete in the 2024 tournament are other reminders of how far things have come.
And for the young girls who were lucky enough to come to the Adirondack Bank Center over the course of 12 days, seeing such an amazing display of talent will hopefully inspire them get in the game or take their own game to a higher level.
“The skill is unbelievable. It’s a great example for what the younger girls are looking up to be,” said Steve Zizzo, the director of girls’ hockey at the Rome Youth Hockey Association. “I think across the board, all the countries participating, not just the U.S. team, really demonstrated a high skillset. It’s a great thing for the younger girls to be there and see it. You couldn’t ask for anything better than this locally.”
As the tournament ended with another thrilling gold-medal showdown between these North American rivals – won by Canada, 6-5, in overtime – the goal now is to capitalize on the momentum and get more young girls into the game.
This past season the Utica Jr. Comets had two girls’ teams within its ranks. Association president Tony Martino said plans are already in the works to expand that number to five teams next season. In addition, he said, there will hopefully be more opportunities for girls to improve their skills with on and off-ice clinics.
“One of the things we’re honestly missing is that early grassroots connection. When we run learn to skate clinics and learn to play clinics and things like that, we can bring 60 or 70 kids out in a night, but when you look at those numbers, more than 90 percent of them are boys,” Martino said.
“One of our goals for the fall is to try to balance that out and get more girls out on the ice. Of course we want the boys, but we also want to leverage the success of the Women’s Worlds as part of our marketing campaign to say, ‘come out and try it.’ ”
Martino said the Jr. Comets program already has a lot going for it. In addition to skating out of a beautiful two-rink facility at the Nexus Center, the organization has the support of the Utica University women’s hockey team, whose players have long served as mentors for local girls and boys.
“That’s been a huge impact giving these young girls an opportunity to see this level of women’s hockey,” Martino said.
“This is another level, and it allows girls to see a goal that’s much higher than the one they’ve been looking at in the same way as when you take a youth player to an NHL game. They can see a goal that is so much above what they’ve been watching and understand how hard they’re going to have to work to get there.”
Staging an international event of this magnitude takes a team effort on the local, national and international levels. Organizers tapped into the local hockey community to help with a variety of tasks, from promoting ticket sales on their association websites to using youth players to help scrape the ice during breaks in the action.
“One of the things that [local organizers] really wanted to do here was use this not only as a chance to showcase the facility and the area but also to try to invigorate even more interest in the sport, especially among the girls. That’s really where we came in,” Martino said.
Fans weren’t the only ones who got caught up in the energy of the tournament. For a trio of homegrown players – Aerin Frankel (Chappaqua), Haley Winn (Rochester) and Hayley Scamurra (Getzville) – being able to represent their country in their own backyard is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I have a lot of family in the stands, so it was super special just to have them all here. It’s their first time probably seeing me play in person, so that was really special,” said Winn, who scored her first two goals in international competition on her way to being named Player of the Game in the tournament opener against Switzerland.”
“It was just really cool to not only play close to home but just play on home soil and have a lot of USA fans here.”
Even the coaching staff got caught up in the atmosphere. Each of the U.S. games was a sellout, or close to it, and featured a large number of young girls and boys carrying signs to celebrate their favorite player.
“I haven’t been around a home ice international contest in a really long time where we had a favorable crowd and you could feel it on the bench, the U-S-A chants,” said head coach John Wroblewski.
“I’ve been able to coach here [in AHL games] and the fan base was electric back then. And they were on it again today. It’s a prideful area and I love it that they came out representing our country because we love representing our country, too.”
After the medals were handed out and the flags of the top three finishers were hoisted to the rafters of the Adirondack Bank Center, the mentally and physically drained U.S. squad solemnly skated off as the capacity crowd gave them a standing ovation.
Hopefully it won’t be another 30 years before the Women’s Worlds returns to New York. No matter how long it takes, the impact of hosting this year’s tournament will be felt not only in Utica but in the surrounding towns and around the state as more girls discover their own place in the game.
“This has been great for the whole area. I think it’s going to bring in new kids to the sport, which is the best part about it,” Zizzo said.
“The kids that already play are going to keep playing and maybe it motivates them to try to work harder and put more into it. But I think it’s the kids that don’t play that are getting a chance to see this and maybe go home to mom and dad and say, ‘hey, can you find me a place to learn how to play?’ I think that’s the best part about the whole thing.”