The U.S. women arrived to the Kwandong Hockey Centre today around 3 p.m. for practice a day after it finished up preliminary round play against Canada.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME
For many athletes, there’s a moment in time they can recall when they first saw the game of hockey being played, or the exact moment that they fell in love with the sport and were set on the path that led them here today, at the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games. Here are a few examples:

Emily Pfalzer (Buffalo, N.Y.): I remember going to my first practice on my first-ever hockey team when I was four. When I was younger, I played a lot of sports. My parents didn’t want my brothers and I to play hockey in the summer because they didn’t want us to burn out. Once August came around, I was dying to get on the ice.

Sidney Morin (Minnetonka, Minn.): One day I went with my dad to pick up my brother at hockey and saw a girl on the ice and turned to my dad and asked him if I could try. From that day on, I fell in love with the game and have been playing ever since. I played on my first team when I was 6 years old.

Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho): My two earliest memories are earning little buttons on our skates when we learned how to skate from one end of the ice to the other, and when I first lifted the puck. I was a late bloomer, so I never had great stick skills until I got older! I love the feeling of speed. going fast, but I also love how dynamic our game is and how every play is different than the one before.

Kali Flanagan (Burlington, Mass.): I remember going down into the basement and seeing my dad’s old RPI equipment hanging up, and saying to my dad that I wanted to do that. I absolutely love skating and the competitive nature of hockey.

Gigi Marvin (Warroad, Minn.): I started skating at age 2 and fell in love with hockey. I’ve always had a huge amount of passion for competing, and when I saw the US win the 1998 gold medal I began pursuing an Olympic gold of my own.

TODAY SHOW
This evening, Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) and her sister Marissa Brandt, as well as their parents, took a trip to NBC’s TODAY Show set in the coastal cluster.