Ukrainian girls' team finds hockey haven at Wickenheiser festival

CALGARY — A Ukrainian girls' hockey team is in Canada for a few days of peace and hockey in an arena that doesn't have a missile-sized hole in its roof.

After a 56 hours of travel to Calgary, including a 24-hour bus ride from Dnipro to Warsaw, Poland, that required army escort for a portion of it, the Ukrainian Wings will join Wickfest, Hayley Wickenheiser's annual girls' hockey festival, on Thursday.

The squad of players aged 11 to 13 was drawn from eight different cities in Ukraine, where sport facilities have been damaged or destroyed since Russia started its invasion in February 2022.

"They all have a personal story of something awful happening," said Wickenheiser. "We give them a week of peace and joy here and I hope they can carry that with them.

"We know full well they're going back to difficult circumstances. It's tough that 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 arena, and we played all our national team championships in this ice arena," 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.

Seredenko says the Wings' arduous journey to Calgary was worth it because it gives the girls hope.

"It's not a good situation in Ukraine, but when they come here, they can believe that everything will be good, everything will be fine, of course we will win soon and we must play hockey. We can't stop because we love these girls and we will do everything for them," she said.

"So many girls on this Ukrainian team are future players of the national team."

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 care about women and children's health. Sport is such a symbol. When you see a group of girls coming off the ice all sweaty and having worked hard on the ice, it's a symbol of a healthy girl," said chief executive officer Julia Anderson.

"That's a healthy kid that's able to participate in sport. We really believe if we can get girls there, whether they're in an active war zone, or here in Canada, those girls will change the world."

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 first time in Ukrainian history where a girls' team is coming to Canada to a very good tournament," Seredenko said. "They can see how they can play in their future. And they can see how it is to play hockey in Canada."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press