‘We don’t want to be pioneers anymore’: Women shine at men’s hockey all-star game
After the game, a girl walked up to three of her heroes, nervously holding her hands in front of her.
Her dad explained she wanted to grow up to play college hockey and eventually make it to the Olympics like the three women in front of her. She wanted a photo with women who had just made history in the sport.
Dani Cameranesi, Kali Flanagan, Gigi Marvin and Annie Pankowski became the first four women to compete in a men’s hockey all-star game Wednesday night in Wichita. Their performances in the ECHL All-Star Game at Intrust Bank Arena were good enough that a ponytail was the only visible difference.
Saturday, 20 women will play in an isolated 3-on-3 game and other skills competitions at the NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis. The ECHL took it a step further and had the women play alongside the men.
“As soon as they announced we would be playing with them, a lot of my friends back home reached out to me and told me how awesome they thought it was,” Pankowski said.
The women played as part of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association, and their commissioner, Jayna Hefford, was there to see it happen.
Along with the game, the women competed in the fastest skater and accuracy shot competitions. Flanagan scored the game-winning goal as her Eastern Conference All-Stars topped the West 4-3.
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Hefford said she got connected with ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin through one of her league’s general managers. They worked out the details, and it led to a “great night for hockey,” Hefford said.
Hefford said she saw the ECHL as a great opportunity to showcase some of her players, and she chose her four carefully.
The four players are considered among the legends in women’s hockey. They own 15 Olympic and IIHF World Championship gold medals. Three of them were on the 2018 Olympic gold medal team, the first in 20 years.
Wednesday’s ECHL All-Star Classic wasn’t the most watched game of the women’s careers, playing alongside 40 men looking to crack into the NHL. But in terms of growing women’s hockey, it might have been.
None of the women said it was too crazy playing with men; they did it throughout their youth and still do when they return home. But they recognized the platform they held by being there.
“I think there is a big disparity between how we perceive ourselves and the rest of the sports world,” Flanagan said. “I know how good these girls are, but sometimes it’s not always like that. A lot of the conversations we had today were people looking at our jerseys and asking, ‘Hey, what’s that logo?’”
Growing the sport has become the primary function for people like Hefford, and top players like those who were in Wichita on Wednesday, and like those who played in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in the summer.
Before the U.S. women’s soccer team won the World Cup on July 7 in France, fans broke out an “Equal Pay” chant.
The team filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer months before their trip to the World Cup as members of the men’s team earn an average of $263,320 while the women are at $99,000, according to The Washington Post.
Since winning their first World Cup in 1991, the U.S. women’s team has won four World Cups and four Olympic titles in 14 combined appearances. The men have none.
The women’s lowest-ever FIFA World Ranking is second. The men’s is 36th.
In women’s hockey, Marvin said the sport is even further behind.
“We’re at the point where we need a league,” Marvin said. “We need it where your No. 1 salary is playing hockey, you have full-time training, support staff and can practice whenever you want rather than basing it off your actual job — because hockey is your actual job.”
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Hefford said every time a woman steps on the ice, she is trying to prove something.
“It’s always someone’s first time seeing women’s hockey,” Hefford said. “The impressive part is to do it under that kind of pressure. If you don’t perform well, the nay-sayers say, ‘Yep, I told you so.’”
Hefford said she was thrilled with how the night went, but she hopes to get to a point when it’s not news that women can compete with men.
“The world we are living in is changing,” Hefford said. “Women’s sport has proven that it’s growing. People want to see it. It’s entertaining. In our situation, we’re not looking for equal pay. We’re looking for an investment.
“We talk about being pioneers a lot. When are we going to stop having to call ourselves pioneers? The women before me were pioneers. The women in my generation were pioneers. Now these guys are the pioneers. We don’t want to be pioneers anymore. We want to have something that young girls can aspire to.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.