The Devils have partnered with HIN, providing economic support and equipment donation drives while working with the city to refurbish the local Ironbound Rink. (Photo: NJ Devils)

Every member associated with Hockey in Newark, past and present, has a dream.

"In 10 years, we'd like to see somebody drafted into the NHL out of Newark. And we feel very strongly about that," New Jersey Devils chairman and managing partner Jeff Vanderbeek told NHL.com.

Hockey in Newark may not be in the business of grooming NHL talent. But the group has instilled in local inner-city children and teenagers a hope and desire that may not have existed a decade ago.

As a result, participation in ice hockey among teens in the city continues to grow.

"Hockey equipment is expensive and ice costs can be astronomical, but HIN does more than teach children how to play hockey. It makes sure that the students are doing well academically," HIN graduate and current Princeton University freshman Kevin Lopez told NHL.com.

With the Slovenian national team clinching its first Olympic hockey berth, and Jarmo Kekalainen becoming the NHL's first European-born full-time general manager, the global hockey community continues to expand.

But one small group from Montreal is doing even more to demonstrate the reach of the sport.

It was just over a year ago that a few hockey players took on the mission of affecting positive change around the world and pursuing cultural exchange through the game they love. They founded Hockey Without Borders, a non-profit organization that already has made a mark internationally.

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. - The eight jerseys hung against the glass at the St. Louis Park Recreation Center, bright red with white piping and names on the back. Those names won't be forgotten anytime soon in this bustling Twin Cities suburb.

Lundberg.

Hickok.

Besse.

Graham.

Moore.

Labosky.

Sprang.

Chumley.

It was senior night Tuesday at Benilde-St. Margaret's School, a small private school 15 minutes west of downtown Minneapolis. Here, those names will go down as a group that not only won a state championship as juniors, but came back to defend that title this season as seniors.

Earlier this month, 15-year-old Jincy Dunne took a spill while playing with the boys high school team at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis. While cutting across the ice in a game, she collided with another player and sustained a concussion, forcing her off the ice.

You should see the other guy.

"I flipped over top of him and hit my head. He broke his femur," said Dunne, whose own high school doesn't have a hockey team, sparking some jealousy from friends when she began playing at Westminster. "[People asked], 'Why did you choose that team? Why not play for us?' We knew the coach and my brother knows the coach's son and he asked, so we said sure."

The Missouri hockey product has been making a lot of headlines lately, and not just for playing on a high school boys team as a 15-year-old. The 5-foot-6 defenseman also suits up with players years older than her -- including her older sister, Jessica -- as a member of the St. Louis Lady Blues 19U club. But her introduction to the hockey world may have come in January, when she helped lead the U.S. under-18 team to a silver medal at the U-18 Worlds in Finland.

It's hard to keep Victoria Arlen down. It's even more difficult to keep up with her.

The 18-year-old high school senior from Exeter, New Hampshire, is already an accomplished hockey player, swimmer, model and motivational speaker.

And she does it all without the use of her legs.

Tarasai Karega isn't the only child who was turned on to hockey by Disney's 1992 film, "The Mighty Ducks." But as a young African-American girl growing up in Detroit, it wasn't Charlie Conway or Adam Banks -- the team's two fictional star players -- that she emulated.

"Jesse [Hall, played by actor Brandon Adams] stood out to me because he was the only black kid on the team," Karega said. "I'd tell my mom I wanted to play hockey and she did some research on organizations in Detroit."

It was a pivotal, if unlikely, turning point for an important hockey ambassador.

Often the only African-American female player on her teams growing up, Tarasai Karega persevered to win a national title and now mentors youth through Ed Snider's foundation. (Photo: Tarasai Karega)

Karega began playing with the Detroit Dragons of the Detroit Hockey Association, an organization affiliated with the NHL's Hockey is for Everyone program. Later, as a star at Cranbrook-Kingswood School in suburban Bloomfield Hills, MI, she was named Michigan's Ms. Hockey in 2005 and scored the game-tying goal and double-overtime winner in the clinching game of the state championship tournament.

From there, Karega enjoyed a standout career at Amherst College, where she was named first-team All-NESCAC as a sophomore and led the school to its first NCAA Division III women's national championship in her senior year. She graduated with a 3.43 grade-point average and a desire to impart the on- and off-ice skills she developed through hockey.

"I've played since I was nine, and it's taught me how to manage various aspects of my life," Karega said. "Time management is a big aspect of what I do, and playing hockey taught me that."

Since graduating in 2009, Karega has been on a mission to share her love for hockey. She started doing that through her work with the Alaska Diversity Hockey Camp, a Wasilla-based camp founded by Scott Gomez and featuring DHA president Will McCants as well as Willie O'Ree, the man who famously broke the NHL color barrier with the Boston Bruins in 1958.

Thousands of disabled people have fallen in love with sled hockey, an exciting and popular Paralympic sport with professional leagues spanning the globe.

One of those players is U.S. Marine Sergeant Josh Sweeney.

A native of Phoenix, Ariz., Sweeney played roller hockey in junior high then progressed to ice hockey during high school. He fell in love with the game; the camaraderie, the physical toll and the adrenaline rush.

"I was more of a bang-into-someone-to-get-the-puck type of player," Sweeney said. "I filled that role and had a lot of fun doing it."

Hockey took a backseat when Sweeney filled a new role, this time as a member of the United States Marine Corps on the front lines in Afghanistan. During his second deployment -- his first was in Spain -- he lived on forward operating bases, places where Sweeney says he was "in direct contact with the enemy."

Seven years ago, Prince George, British Columbia, native Glen Bueckert and his wife, Lorrain, sold their small business and moved to Vancouver with the dream of starting a not-for-profit organization that would make hockey more accessible to kids all over the world. Thus, Youth With A Mission Hockey was born.

"So far we've been all across Russia, into Eastern China, through Finland, in Alaska and in Western Canada," Bueckert told NHL.com.

Since the Bueckerts established YWAM Hockey in 2005, they have facilitated hockey camps and clinics for thousands of kids who otherwise might not have had the opportunity to enjoy the hockey camp experience. In an upcoming trip to Russia, YWAM Hockey will play against and coach up to 1,000 players.

"One big difference between YWAM Hockey and other hockey organization is that YWAM Hockey is run by volunteers, including my wife and I," Bueckert said. "Because we are volunteers, the main motive for us is that we love kids and we love hockey. We want to give kids the opportunity to experience a hockey camp. Our bottom-line motive is not financial, it's because we love the kids."

Jeff Sauer spent decades coaching men's hockey at Colorado College and the University of Wisconsin, winning nearly 500 games and two national championships, but these days he finds himself rejuvenated and his love for the game strong as ever through his work with both the United States Deaflympics and the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team.

Sauer, who began his collegiate coaching career more than 40 years ago as an assistant to the legendary "Badger" Bob Johnson, is in the process of putting together a team to play at the World Deaf Championship in Finland at the end of March. He first became involved with the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association when it was established back in the 1970s by Chicago Blackhawks great Stan Mikita, and has been marveling at the accomplishments of its players ever since.

Sgt. 1st Class Joe Bowser had a difficult decision to make in 2004 after serving in a transportation unit in Balad, Iraq. After a rocket was fired into his unit, shrapnel hit the calcaneus bone in his right heel forcing him to undergo roughly 14 operations before being offered a tough proposition by doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"The doctor came in and gave me the option to either salvage the leg, be in pain the rest of my life and basically drag a leg I really couldn't operate, or I can have it amputated," said Bowser, who currently works as a staff assistant to Secretary of the Army John McHugh. "My first thought was I want to play hockey again, so I'm going to have it whacked off. I basically had it cut off so I could play hockey."

Finding a local hockey game wasn't easy at first, but by 2007 Bowser was named to the U.S. National Amputee Team. From there, he helped to spearhead the growth of the U.S.A. Warriors Ice Hockey team, a program designed to assist military veterans who have sustained injuries while serving abroad. For the growing number of veterans participating in the program, it provides a competitive outlet as well as a vital rehabilitation tool.

"Our biggest injuries are the ones you can't see. The TBI [Traumatic Brain Injury], the PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder]. We've got some guys that skate with us on the U.S.A. Warriors ice hockey team that are in that situation," said the 53-year-old Bowser. "It's such a great opportunity to just be able to skate together and tell your war stories in the locker room. The first time I stepped on the ice after being wounded was the greatest feeling ever. I felt like I was normal again."