Hockeyville to provide tremendous boost to women's hockey in Nova Scotia

Call it serendipitous, six degrees of separation, plain old good luck or something else that Kraft Hockeyville is coming to Sydney, Nova Scotia.

A community celebration will include a visit from the Stanley Cup and a preseason game between the Florida Panthers and Ottawa Senators at Centre 200 on Sunday (4 p.m. ET; NHLN).

It's because, said Cape Breton Blizzard Female Hockey Association president Christina Lamey, "hockey makes things happen." 

There are about 300 players in the Blizzard program, double the size since it became an independent Hockey Nova Scotia female hockey association in early 2020, yet they can't get ice in local arenas because boys' and men's teams have priority at the major rinks. They've had to travel from their base in Membertou, Nova Scotia to neighboring communities like Whitney Pier (four miles away) and Eskasoni (24 miles) to play or just practice.

Lamey found an opening: Hockeyville and the $250,000 grand prize, which could be used to rebuild the dormant Canada Games Complex on the campus of Cape Brenton University. She partnered with the college's women's club hockey team and organizations with a combined 20 teams scrambling for ice.

She also got help from an old boss from her time working as communications manager for the Nova Scotia Government Caucus, Pat Dunn, minister of communities, culture, tourism and heritage in Nova Scotia. He was able to secure $8.2 million in provincial funding.

Pat's daughter, Tara Dunn, played four seasons as a forward at Harvard University (1997-01) and two for Toronto of the National Women's Hockey League.

"Just amazing how his daughter being a hockey player from long ago, he could be part of the people that made this historic event occur," Lamey said.

Sydney won Hockeyville 2022, and the refurbished Canada Games Complex is expected to be completed by around January, 2025. When finished, it will be the first hub for women's hockey in Canada.

"It's a small hockey world, so there's a connection there between all of that and this arena happening, through Pat Dunn of all people," Lamey said. "He was ready to help when the time came. Sometimes these things take a long time, until the right people are in the right spot to make it happen."

Canada Games Complex opened in 1986 to host the 1987 Canada Winter Games. But in 2015 it was decommissioned -- no more money was put into it's upkeep -- and closed for good in March 2020.

An initial inspection for the project showed the arena's ice plant was at the end of its life cycle, and the Zamboni looked like it had been stripped for parts.

Everything had to be new; so did the treatment of women's hockey in the area.

"We targeted that we should reopen this arena and that it should become a home ice for girls' and women's hockey in the region," Lamey said. "They loved that idea, and the president of the university (David Dingwall) was all-in and wanted to know how they could help. I said, 'Well, we're going to run for Hockeyville.' That was the driving storyline behind our Hockeyville bid, and I think it really captured the attention of the community.

"In a weird way, the prize was really just the beginning. By winning Hockeyville, it put our issue front and center and got the attention of governments as well."

An energy efficient ice plant is being installed and an electric Zamboni purchased, with other plans to offer health and counseling services for students and a walking track. The timing is perfect with the Aug. 29 launch of the Professional Women's Hockey League and teams in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, New York, Boston and Minneapolis-St. Paul. The measuring stick is changing, even for those retired or fortunate enough to grow up where ice never was an issue.

Megan Bozek grew up in Buffalo Grove, Illinois, about 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago. She was a coach during New York Rangers development camp in July, two months after leaving the United States National Team and 14 months removed from helping the U.S. win the silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. She visited Belfast, Ireland, in August, where rinks are scarce, teams get about four hours of ice time per month and compete in tournaments not sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The experience was eye-opening, like what Hockeyville has done within Canada.

"Giving people that dream, men, women, it doesn't matter," Bozek said. "If people can play, they can play, and you don't want to take something away from them when it's their passion and they really truly love to do it. So seeing how Hockeyville grows that is remarkable and speaks so highly of how communities come together."

It will be the second time the Panthers play Hockeyville, the first a 4-3 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Bathurst, New Brunswick, honoring Renous, in 2019. The Senators are participating in Hockeyville for the third consecutive year, defeating the Canadiens 4-3 in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador (Twillingate, 2020), and 3-2 in overtime in Bouctouche, New Brunswick (Elsipogtog First Nation, 2021).

Senators forward Drake Batherson scored the game-winner and had an assist in Bouctouche. This year the 25-year-old returns to where he played junior hockey, Cape Breton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, from 2015-18. Batherson's family will see him play in the same city that his father, Norm Batherson, settled down after retiring from pro hockey at the end of the 2005-06 season.

The group that organized Sydney's Hockeyville bid was inspired by Elsipogtog First Nation, the connection deep with about 100 Indigenous players in their league and neighboring First Nation communities. There is something about the small-world phenomenon. Lamey and the Blizzard felt it, and the power of Hockeyville.

"Again, back to this the connectivity of being connected to people and how," she said. "When the time is right, that makes things happen for you."