Minnesota Olympians pushing women's hockey to win gold and go viral
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Kelly Pannek (No. 12) is one of eight players with Minnesota ties on the U.S. Olympic women's hockey team. Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The rise of professional women's hockey in North America has made training for this year's Winter Olympics "really different," Plymouth native Kelly Pannek tells Axios.
Before the 2018 and 2022 Games, the U.S. women's training schedule included exhibitions against men's clubs and college teams — games that weren't always the best measuring sticks, Pannek says.
- Four years later, in the Professional Women's Hockey League, "you're daily being pushed by the best players in the world — in your practices," the Minnesota Frost center tells Axios.
The big picture: Pannek is one of eight players with Minnesota ties on a U.S. women's team hoping to reclaim gold this month in Milano-Cortina.
- Those Minnesotans are also some of the PWHL's biggest breakout stars, and they'll be crucial to the league's drive to cash in on the visibility of the Games and rising popularity of women's sports.
What they're saying: "At the end of the day, our job is to play really good hockey — whether it's in the PWHL or at the Olympics," said Pannek, who had an assist in Thursday's 5-1 Team USA victory to open the Games. "The better we play, the more people turn on."
Flashback: Pannek is one of only five current players — including Frost teammates Kendall Coyne Schofield and Lee Stecklein — who won gold in 2018, and remembers how bitter silver tasted in 2022.
- "In that game, [silver] is losing," said Pannek, one of the sport's best "two-way" (offensive and defensive) players.
Who we're watching: Lake City native Taylor Heise was snubbed from the Olympic roster in 2022. Now, the Frost winger is one of the PWHL's top scoring threats.
- She's also been active on social media, with a tour of her room in the Olympic Village (shared with Excelsior's Grace Zumwinkle) garnering 277,000+ TikTok views.
The intrigue: Heise points to U.S. Olympic rugby player Ilona Meyer, who "popped off" on social media with content meant to "cause a ruckus."
- "That visibility and accessibility leading into the Olympics — like, I know I'm going to share everything so that people can see it," Heise tells Axios.
"We're there to win lots of hockey games — actually, all of them," Heise says, "but I think sometimes you just have to realize hockey is what you do, it's not who you are."
Plus: One Minnesota Olympian went viral on the ice before the Games — a current Golden Gopher whose crazy assist is sometimes referred to simply by her name: "the Abbey Murphy."
The bottom line: The PWHL is hoping the Olympics produce more content — off and on the ice — that extends the sport's reach.