A Ukrainian women hockey group remains in Canada for a couple of days of tranquility and hockey in a sector that does not have a missile-sized opening in its roofing.
After 56 hours of traveling to Calgary — consisting of a 24-hour bus adventure from Dnipro to Warsaw, Poland, that called for a military companion at one factor — the Ukrainian Wings will certainly sign up with Wickfest, Hayley Wickenheiser’s yearly women’ hockey celebration, on Thursday.
The team of gamers aged 11 to 13 was attracted from 8 cities in Ukraine, where sporting activity centers have actually been harmed or ruined because Russia began its intrusion in February 2022.
“They all have a personal story of something awful happening,” claimedWickenheiser “We give them a week of peace and joy here and I hope they can carry that with them.
“We understand complete well they’re returning to challenging situations. It’s challenging in this way.”
Nine players are from Kharkiv, where pictures show a large hole in the roof of the Saltovskiy Led arena where the girls’ team WHC Panthers once skated.
“It was our home ice sector, and we played all our nationwide group champions in this ice sector,” said Kateryna Seredenko, who oversees the Panthers program and is the Wings general manager.
Ukraine’s Olympic Committee posted photos and wrote in a Facebook post Sept. 1 that Kharkiv’s Sport Palace, which was home to multiple hockey teams, was also destroyed in an attack on the city.
< figcaption course=" image-caption">Assistant coach Tetyana Tkachenko, centre, attends a practice Wednesday with her hockey team of Ukrainian girls under-13 in Calgary. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)
Seredenko says the Wings’ arduous journey to Calgary was worth it because it gives the girls hope.
“It’s not a great scenario in Ukraine, yet when they come below, they can think that whatever will certainly be great, whatever will certainly be great. Of program we will certainly win quickly and we should play hockey. We can not quit due to the fact that we like these women and we will certainly do whatever for them,” she said.
“So several women on this Ukrainian group are future gamers of the nationwide group.”
Wickenheiser, a Hockey Hall of Famer, is the assistant general manager of player development for the Toronto Maple Leafs and a doctor who works emergency-room shifts in the Toronto area.
The six-time Olympian and four-time gold medallist organized her first Wickfest after the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.
She’s had teams from India, Mexico and Czechia attend over the last decade and a half but never a team that ran the Ukrainians’ gauntlet of logistics.
The Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health took on the task of arranging visas and paying for the team’s travel.
“We respect ladies and youngsters’s health and wellness. Sport is such an icon. When you see a team of women coming off the ice all perspiring and having actually striven on the ice, it’s an icon of a healthy and balanced lady,” said chief executive officer Julia Anderson.
“That’s a healthy and balanced youngster that has the ability to take part in sporting activity. We actually think if we can obtain women there, whether they remain in an energetic battle zone, or below in Canada, those women will certainly transform the globe.”
The Wings aren’t the first Ukrainians to seek a hockey haven in Canada since the war began.
An under-25 men’s team played four games against university squads in early 2023 to prepare for that year’s world university games.
Ukrainian teams have also twice played in the Quebec City International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament.
“It’s the very first time in Ukrainian background where a ladies’ group is pertaining to Canada to a great competition,” Seredenko said. “They can see exactly how they can play in their future. And they can see exactly how it is to play hockey in Canada.”
