Hurley becomes fourth female in mens pro hockey

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Manon Rheaume, Erin Whitten and Hayley Wickenheiser hold the honors of being the first three female hockey players to play professionally in men’s leagues from North America to Finland. If the Evansville Icemen of the AAHA have anything to say about it, there will be a fourth name and face to complete the Mount Rushmore of women’s hockey equality this season. On Friday, January 16, the team announced that it had signed Kira Hurley, a 24

year old from Toronto, to be the franchise’s backup net minder and a week later, she saw her first game action, adding her name to a very elite list of trailblazing women. “I don’t tend to look at it that way (as being a trailblazer). I’m just more focused on being able to achieve what I can achieve,” Hurley said in a phone interview the day before her debut with the Icemen. “I just push myself to the limit and if I can compete with the guys and I make the team, then there’s more to it.” Being on a men’s team is nothing new for Hurley as she grew up playing on boys teams. She chose to play college hockey for the women’s team at Clarkson University and by the time she was done there, her name was emblazoned in both the school and NCAA record books. Hurley led Clarkson to the ECACHL post season tournament in all three years of her eligibility. During her junior year, she was named an All-American – the first such honor in the history of Clarkson’s women’s program – along with being named the ECACHL Goaltender of the Year and Clarkson’s 2006 Female Athlete of the Year. Her ten shutouts that season were the NCAA high that year, highlighting her 21-12-1 record with a sterling 1.29 goals against average and a save percentage of .937. Oh, and by the way, she stopped 116 of 120 shots in 222:50 of action over three games in the playoffs against Harvard, including a career high 51 saves in a double overtime loss to the Crimson that logged in at 84:22 of playing time. The four years at Clarkson taught Hurley plenty about the differences between the women’s game and the men’s. “In all honesty, the main difference I would say is the physicality of it (men’s game). Obviously there’s no hitting in women’s hockey. That’s not to say that it doesn’t get physical because of course there’s pushing and shoving and all of that fun stuff too,” she said. “The physicality, the speed, the shots. Over all, it’s still hockey. You can compare and contrast all you want but either way when you’re playing either of them you’ve got to stop the puck. It‘s just being able to gauge the difference in the speed of the game. The momentum and the physicality are pretty much the difference.” Following her Clarkson career, Kira still had the urge to play and wanted to do it professionally. Her agent threw out some feelers and received a call back from the Mon Valley Thunder of the fledgling MAHL. She performed well enough to make the roster but other issues kept her from playing. “I went down (to Mon Valley) and I practiced to the best of my abilities and I made the team. Unfortunately visa issues were a problem so I wasn‘t able to go through with the season,” Hurley said. “I had signed the contract and was ready to go but things didn’t work out.” When the MAHL folded, she headed back north and hooked on with the Marmora Lakers of the Ontario senior men’s AAA Hockey Association where she was coached by former NHL player Shawn Antoski. Her appearance there was the first time that a female had played in what is considered “the top level of amateur hockey in Canada”. It also rekindled her love of playing against men. “It was a great experience for me. The guys were hard hitting, fast, hard shots. I just kind of took to it and tried to compete with them the best I could,” she said. “In doing that, I raised my level (of play) up and that became the bare minimum of what I was going to do.” As the current season began, Evansville was set with its goaltending with Matt Wagner and Reid Sifford. Wagner was knocked out with a concussion early in the season and Sifford didn’t fare well. Coach Jason Reichart and General Manager Chip Rossetti went searching, trying to find a solid net minder. A particularly bad weekend prompted the pair to have an open tryout. “Our play up front had been solid. Our defense had sort of stepped up but our goaltending, there just wasn’t a lot of confidence. The guys just didn’t have that confidence that you need in your net minder that if they make a mistake then somebody’s there to bail them out,” Reichert said. “We went into the weekend and I’d have to double check the stats but it just seemed like one out of three shots was going in no matter if the goalie saw it or not. You just can‘t have those kind of numbers at any level.” Five goalies, including Hurley, came in to tryout. Dave DeSander, who had been in the Icemen’s preseason training camp before being cut, took over the number one spot. Hurley was impressive enough during her tryout to earn her the backup role. “Looking at the other goalies, her background and just her play in the net regardless of whether she was male or female, that didn’t matter,” Reichart said. “It’s about who can get the job done and we felt confident that she was somebody we could put in net.” Following a week of practice, Hurley got her chance in Evansville’s game against Chicago on January 24^th. Near the mid point of the second period and comfortably in front 6-0, Reichart decided it was time. Out came DeSanderand in went Hurley amid the loud cheers of the pro-Evansville crowd. Her first save came on a shot from the top of the slot that she blocked with her leg pad before diving out to cover the rebound. In all, Hurley allowed three goals and stopped eight of eleven shots. “She was noticeably upset with herself after the game for the goals that she let in but given the pressure that she was under and the environment she was in, I thought she did well,” Icemen General Manager Chip Rossetti said. “She will get another hard week of practice and we will see where she is at before next weekend’s games.” As for being a role model and trailblazer, Hurley said that she doesn’t think of herself in that light but is smart enough to realize that there is a lesson to be learned every time she suits up and skates out to the net. “If little girls were coming out thinking “if she can do it, I can too”, that would be all I would ask for. I just want girls, boys, anybody just to be able to be the best they can be,” she said. “I don’t really look at myself as a role model. I just want to show maybe that you can do what you want to do if you put your mind to it. I hope that everybody has a chance to experience what I’ve experienced – being able to get to the top level of whatever it is they would like to do.” Now that’s a life lesson worthy of a monument. Contact the author at don.money@prohockeynews.com