California Dreaming on Such a Winter’s Day

As the U.S. women’s national hockey team prepares for the World Championships next week and its Olympic debut next year in Nagano, two Californians are poised to make an impact on a game that has been dominated by Easterners.

Right wing Barb Gordon, who first skated at a shopping mall in San Diego, and defenseman Angela Ruggiero, whose family moved to Michigan to advance her brother’s hockey career, figure to play key roles in the World Championships at Kitchener, Canada, and in Nagano next year.

“I think it’s fantastic women’s hockey is going to be a medal sport,” said Gordon, who led the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference in scoring last season at Colby College in Maine. “It should have been long ago.”

She didn’t make the U.S. team for the world tournament but can still make the Olympic squad. “Growing up, I was a huge King fan,” she said. “I would watch the games on TV and I played right along with them in my living room with my little mini sticks.”

Ruggiero, 17, is the youngest member of the team and one of the biggest at 5 feet 9 and 175 pounds. She grew up in Simi Valley but enrolled at a Connecticut prep school, in order to play at a higher level of competition.

“In California it was weird because no one had heard of women’s hockey,” she said. “Some didn’t even know about men’s hockey. Now, I think roller hockey’s popularity has helped hockey in general become more popular and made people more aware.”