Women’s Frozen Four at Penn State the latest sign of progress for women’s hockey in Pennsylvania. Is a professional team next?

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — When Hannah Spradley got out of the car and found out her “special field trip after school” was a trip to the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, she was so excited she screamed.

Eight-year-old Hannah and her best friend and hockey teammate Angela Marshall were big Robert Morris University hockey fans. When they found out the week before that Ohio State, where several of the Robert Morris players transferred after their program was cut last May, would be playing at Penn State in the Frozen Four, they said they asked and asked and asked if they could attend.

The girls’ moms, Jessica Spradley and Jamie Marshall, texted. It would be a four-hour round-trip drive from their homes in western Pennsylvania, but a chance for their girls to see females playing their sport at a high level. Spradley said “there wasn’t even a second thought.”

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Since the RMU hockey program was discontinued — Robert Morris will reinstate men’s and women’s hockey in 2023-24 — the community has felt the loss, Spradley and Marshall said. The players used to come out to skate with and support their daughters, and became “adopted sisters,” Angela said. Pittsburgh is a big hockey town, but there’s no female professional team, so the RMU players were the stars for the region’s little girls playing hockey.

“Having a role model for the girls to look up to — not just Sidney Crosby, who’s amazing,” Marshall said. “The boys are great, but having girls for them to look up to and [be] so accessible was important.”

When Marshall was young, she loved hockey and would practice with the boys. However, there were no girls’ teams for her to play on, so she turned to other sports. Spradley doesn’t even know how to skate — she played college basketball — but she wants her daughters to play the sport they love and to be able to dream of a future in hockey.

Even at 8, Hannah and Angela understand the importance of representation.

“It’s good because all the girls, especially if they’re higher than us, we can learn from what they do and learn from their mistakes and learn from our mistakes and see what they do,” Angela said.

“They’re really good models,” Hannah said. “It’s easier to have your own time with [them]. You understand how they do stuff.”

Across the ice, in bright yellow jerseys, four other youth hockey players banged on the glass. Seri (11) and Lia (10) DiNicola, Brenna Bianchi (10) and Lucy Sykes (11) took in the whole weekend after making the four-hour trip from New York to see women’s hockey’s premier college event.

While Angela and Hannah had the opportunity to attend the United States vs. Canada “Rivalry Rematch” in Pittsburgh, some of the girls from New York had never seen elite women’s hockey in person.

The four girls were accompanied by their fathers. While the dads hadn’t personally experienced the lack of opportunities for females like Spradley and Marshall did growing up, they were just as passionate about exposing their girls to potential role models.

“I want [Brenna] to be able to think about these things and be able to say, ‘You know what, there’s no limitations on what I can do. There’s no glass ceilings,’” said Chris Bianchi, who used to coach women’s college soccer.

Chris Sykes has already seen the difference it can make by the way Lucy talks.

“Until my daughter started seeing hockey players with ponytails, she’d say, ‘I’m going to be a hockey coach when I grow up,’ Sykes said. “And she saw some of the high-level women playing hockey and all [of a] sudden, now she’s going to be a player.”

Ohio State defenseman Hadley Hartmetz always wanted to be a player when she grew up — but she wanted to be a Flyer. Growing up in West Chester, Hartmetz played mostly on boys’ teams and attended Flyers games. She only saw women competing at the top level by making the trip out to Princeton.

The ultimate goal has always been the Olympics, Hartmetz said. Right now, women’s professional leagues in America don’t pay most players enough to make hockey a full-time career. Establishing better opportunities would make a difference in the dreams of players of all ages.

“It would be awesome, not only for little girls to be able to see a women’s team, but just for me, like that would be something I’d want to do,” Hartmetz said.

At the college level, the NCAA has placed extra emphasis this year on making sure there is equality between men’s and the women’s sports. Michael Cross, Penn State’s assistant athletic director, said it goes back to when the gross disparities between the men’s and women’s facilities during March Madness were exposed last year.

Penn State, which has only had a Division I hockey program since 2012-13 and was hosting the Frozen Four for the first time, has the advantage of financial support from PSU alumni Terry Pegula and his wife Kim, who back both men’s and women’s programs and also own the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres. Cross said the whole weekend was like a “nonstop commercial” for Penn State in that the logo was in every shot as the event aired. It will also help recruiting by showing how much money and resources the school has committed to women’s athletics. The event will also hopefully help the sport’s growth in the state as a whole.

State College is situated halfway between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, two big hockey cities. Although Penn State holds developmental programs, Penn State women’s hockey coach Jeff Kampersal said his daughter currently has to travelto Pittsburgh to compete against strong competition.

While youth players may have to travel away from State College to compete, it’s a good location for fans from both sides of the state to come together and witness women’s sports.

“Having the Women’s Frozen Four in Pennsylvania is great for our state and the sport of hockey,” said Flyers president of business operations Valerie Camillo, the first woman hired as president of an NHL franchise. “Hockey matters here, and this event will draw increased attention to the women’s game. Each year, more and more women and girls are playing and engaging in the sport of hockey, and that is great for the Flyers, the NHL, and the growth of our sport.”

According to registration data from USA Hockey, from2010 to 2020 (the last season before COVID-19), female participation in ice hockey across all age groups increased 60% in the Atlantic region, which is defined as Delaware, New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. Among girls 10 and under in the region, that number has increased 153% during that same time frame. Those numbers should only continue to increase as more and more opportunities arise for women to continue playing the game past college.

Currently there are two existing North American women’s professional leagues, the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA) and the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Last week, Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek reported that the NHL had asked both leagues to meet to discuss the future of women’s hockey and potentially the unification of the two leagues. The three parties, including NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, reportedly met Wednesday in New York. Jamie said it would be “absolutely incredible” if the two women’s leagues were able to come together with “NHL sponsoring,” adding how it would allow the players to hopefully “make a good salary and be professional athletes.”

In January, the PHF announced it would add two expansion teams prior to next season, one in Montreal and one in a yet to be named U.S. city, and if that goes well, look to expand to 10 teams for the 2023-24 season. In the past, Philadelphia has been floated as a potential city that could field a women’s pro hockey team, but there have been no updates on when the location of the other PHF expansion team for 2022-23 will be announced.

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For now, Hartmetz has been encouraged by the growth she’s seen in the girls’ game in Philadelphia, and it was encouraging to see the young girls lined up on the glass at the Frozen Four.

“That’s where dreams start to form,” Hartmetz said.

With her family and friends among the 2,000 fans in the stands on Sunday, Hartmetz had her best game of the season and helped Ohio State to a 3-2 win over Minnesota Duluth in the national title game.

“When I was a little kid, I dreamed of winning a national championship, so to do it at home was amazing,” Hartmetz said. “I hope it continues to help [women’s hockey] grow. And I hope all the little girls who were watching will know they can have the same dream and accomplish it one day.”