'Ice Queens' documentary celebrates Black women in hockey

Black women have been making their impact on hockey for many years. Now a new documentary celebrates their contributions

"Ice Queens," directed by Kwame Damon Mason, will premiere on SN360 on March 8, with a second airing March 11 on SN1. Mason had the idea for "Ice Queens" after making the award-winning documentary, "Soul on Ice: Past, Present and Future."

"When the NHL allowed me to go to different cities and show the [Soul on Ice] film, I was in Chicago and doing a Q&A, this little Black girl got up and said, 'What about all the girls?' And that just made me go, 'Oh my God, I'm missing something here,'" Mason said on the @TheRink podcast in February.

"I feel like, especially now, we've got to make sure we talk about the women's game and the women who have paved the way for all these young girls to play the game. It's very important to share that story."

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The documentary begins by featuring Angela James, a former Canadian forward and defenseman who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010.

"I always tell the young girls, don't sell yourself short. You're going to come through some adversities in life," said James, who won gold with Canada in the IIHF World Women's Championship in 1990, 1992, 1994 and 1997. "Just make sure you don't let people define your world. Anything can happen if you dream big."

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said, "Angela James' legacy is two-fold: It caused the women's game to be recognized and I think she elevated the status of hockey for both men and women and boys and girls."

Kim Davis, NHL Senior Executive Vice President, Social Impact, Growth & Legislative Affairs and Kelsey Koelzer, who became the first Black female head coach in NCAA ice hockey history when she was hired by Arcadia University in 2019, are also featured in the documentary.

"I love being the first," Koelzer said. "It's something that comes with a lot of responsibility, it comes with definitely some pressure, it comes with a lot of tasks you have to do you have to accomplish to make sure you're not the last. But it's something I feel I've been training for my whole life."

Davis, who was hired by the NHL on Nov. 27, 2017, said, "Black women have always been trailblazers and leaders, even when we didn't necessarily get recognized for it.

"Part of my responsibility as a Black woman in leadership in the sport of hockey is to amplify these voices, to bring voice to the issues of women of color that are different than the issues just across gender and to leave the places and spaces I touch better than I found them."

The documentary also features some of the best current Black female players, including Canadian hockey forwards Sarah Nurse and Mikyla Grant-Mentis. Nurse won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Grant-Mentis signed a one-year, $80,000 contract with the Buffalo Beauts, becoming the highest paid player in Premier Hockey Federation history.

"I'd like to inspire young girls basically to love the sport," Grant-Mentis said. "My entire life, all I've done (is) to love the sport and if I didn't play hockey I don't think I would be this successful and this happy in my life at where I am right now."