ČESKÉ BUDĚJOVICE — Women's hockey in British Columbia is having a long-awaited moment.
Three players from the province on Canada's world championship roster is the most ever. It was initially four until Hannah Miller ran afoul of international transfer rules.
"It's been a long time coming to get a few more players on this team," said defender Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton, B.C.
Jennifer Gardiner of Surrey, Chloe Primerano and Miller of North Vancouver and Zandee-Hart represented a veritable B.C. explosion when Canada's 25 players were announced in March.
There wasn't a B.C. player on the women's team for almost two decades after goaltender Danielle Dube in the 1997 world championship.
The province hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2014 Four Nations and the 2016 world championship without a homegrown player in those tournaments.
Two games into this year's world championship, Gardiner has two goals and an assist, Zandee-Hart scored her first international goal and 18-year-old Primerano became the third-youngest player to suit up for Canada after Hayley Wickenheiser (15) and Cheryl Pounder (17) in 1994.
"I'm sure those three girls are going to have an incredible showing at worlds," Miller predicted.
She was found to be ineligible because she was under a pro contract to a Chinese club less than two years ago, which ran against International Ice Hockey Federation transfer rules.
Canadian team general manager Gina Kingsbury has indicated Miller remains in the pool of players under consideration for the 2026 Olympic team.
Canada (2-0) faces the United States (2-0) in Pool A on Sunday before finishing the preliminary round Monday against host Czechia (1-1).
Zandee-Hart and sisters Sarah and Amy Potomak of Aldergrove were B.C.'s wedge into the national team in late 2016 for a series against the archrival Americans.
Zandee-Hart and Sarah Potomak continued to bump up B.C.'s presence when they helped Canada win 2022 world championship gold in Herning, Denmark.
"Micah was one of the first to play for Canada and such a big role model for everyone in B.C.," Primerano said.
Boosting B.C.'s buzz was the 19,038 who attended the Professional Women's Hockey League Takeover Tour game Jan. 9 at Vancouver's Rogers Arena, which outdrew the NHL's Canucks to that point in the season.
BC Hockey declared a blackout on girls' games and practices, so they could attend.
"It's awesome for our province to see more players at that level," said Miller, who played in the game with the Toronto Sceptres.
Ontario and Quebec historically dominate Canada's rosters and there's always been a prairie player or two. Atlantic Canada broke through with three in the 2016 world championship lineup, including current forward Blayre Turnbull of Stellarton, N.S.
How girls were treated in hockey started to change at the grassroots level just over a decade ago, said Brianna Davey, who is BC Hockey's vice-president of member services for the minor and female ranks.
"I started with BC Hockey in 2014 and took on basically the Program of Excellence in 2015 and at that stage, we weren't doing well at nationals. We weren't making it to the Hockey Canada stage," Davey recalled. "There was just, there was no gumption."
Minor hockey associations on the Lower Mainland and in the Okanagan led the charge in devoting more time and resources to create girls' teams, she said.
"When you get girls in a more comfortable area, they tend to do a little bit better when they're not trying to watch their back when they go into the boards," Davey said. "They can actually skate well and stickhandle and do all the skill movements that they need to."
Davey oversees the program that sends a B.C. rep to the Canada Winter Games and the national women's under-18 championship.
"We really just started to mimic what the process was to make Team Canada," Davey explained. "Our camps, we started to mimic the practices or skill development.
"The big thing we started to really do was provide feedback. These girls would take these forms back to their coaches and say, 'Hey, this is what I've been identified to work on.'"
B.C. players began populating NCAA college rosters and Canada's under-18 teams.
"It's pretty cool to see four B.C. players named to the roster and three at the tournament right now," Gardiner said. "We're seeing a lot more players from the West Coast go play in the NCAA and play on the East Coast in those schools, which is a stepping stone to playing professional and making the national team one day.
"The players have always been there. Finally, there's a lot of coaches that are going out west and realizing that and recruiting and spending the time and committing to those players."
Miller and Zandee-Hart predate BC Hockey's shift. They were teammates on the Okanagan Hockey Academy's under-18 prep team in 2013 and 2014, which planted seeds for their eventual rise to the national team.
Zandee-Hart recalls playing with Miller and against the Potomaks influenced the trajectory of her career.
"Being surrounded by those players at an integral age, which was high school, and deciding whether I wanted to pursue the next level of hockey or pursue something else, seeing them and what they did ... helped me kind of stay on the path and stay on the course," said Zandee-Hart.
"There wasn't very many of us that were looking to go to the next level, which was this level."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2025.
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
