Blues expand girls hockey development program with inaugural tournament

The St. Louis Blues have been steadily expanding the Girls Hockey Development Program they launched in 2020 as the organization’s NHL All-Star Legacy initiative.

The Blues marked a new milestone this weekend when they hosted the inaugural 12U Tier 1 Ice Breaker Invitational at Centene Community Ice Center from Friday to Sunday, bringing together elite programs for both on-ice competition and off-ice development.

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Event coordinator Brittany Koch is Blues senior coordinator, community hockey, and an on-ice instructor for the program with playing experience at the high school and college level.

“This is really important because I grew up playing hockey,” Koch said. “I’ve been to plenty of youth tournaments, so I’ve kind of seen what’s been done, and I haven’t really seen anything like this. We’re just really focusing on the off-ice portion. I’ve went to games and either I made it to the championship game, or I left, but I never got to learn what to do off ice. We didn’t have anything. The tournaments were fun, don’t get me wrong, but there was nothing to do between games, but to do this and have something for the girls to keep them going and not have them sit in their hotel rooms, was really important.

“Games are great, but think we also need to focus on the off-ice aspect as well.”

Five of the nation’s top Tier 1 girls hockey programs — the St. Louis AAA Lady Blues, Carolina Jr. Canes, San Jose Jr. Sharks, Arizona Kachinas, and Milwaukee Jr. Admirals — took part in a round-robin style tournament with a four-game minimum and a championship game.

They also participated in a session on nutrition and leadership training from 1st Phorm, a Women in Sports Panel and Festival, and a Skills Competition.

Two-time Olympic medalist Alex Cavallini is an on-ice instructor and youth hockey ambassador for the Blues. The goalie won gold with the United States at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“It’s such a special event,” Cavallini said. “When I first spoke to the Blues about it when they came to me, I was so ecstatic for it. It’s something that I’ve been personally looking forward to just bring in teams here to St. Louis to see how great the Blues organization is because I just know how important girls hockey is to the St. Louis Blues and how much they want to grow the game. This is just a testament to what they are out here trying to do every day in St. Louis.”

Cavallini was joined by Olympic teammates Hannah Brandt, Megan Ferguson, Abby Roque and Jincy Roese as ambassadors and mentors throughout the weekend. Brandt, Roque, and Roese are in the Professional Women’s Hockey League; Brandt for the Boston Fleet, Roque for the Montreal Victoire and Roese for the New York Sirens.

Roese, who was part of the silver-medal winning team in Beijing in 2022, is from nearby O’Fallon, Missouri. She played the first women’s professional game in St. Louis on March 29 with the Ottawa Charge against the Fleet during the PWHL Takeover Tour.

“It’s the best event that needs to happen,” Roese said. “I was around the girls all day (Saturday) and they’re so excited. That’s amazing that they get to have that opportunity and experience that. Way to go Blues on that one, but the girls have asked questions and what it’s like to play in the PWHL, and I get to interact with them as well. It was really sweet.

“We went into the Blues’ locker room today and they made me a sign, and they had most of the St. Louis girls in the area sign it for me, so that was very, very special.”

Over the last five years, the Blues have seen participation in the Girls Hockey Development Program grow from just over 100 players in the first year to nearly 500 this past season.

St. Louis, which supports all-girls associations including the Affton Lady Liberty, Chesterfield Lady Falcons and the St. Louis Lady Cyclones, wants to grow this first-time event and make it an annual one.

“What we want to see is awareness about it,” Koch said. “This is our first one and obviously we want it to go well. We want this to happen next year, the following year, but we want to grow it. We’ve got five teams now, but later down the road, we might want 12, we might want 15 teams. We want to really keep growing it, but also let everyone know that we’re here to give something to these 12-year-old girls, give these 12U teams, especially at this level.

“A lot of times teams are being made, or they’re already formed, but they don’t have anything to do around this time frame, so we really want to have something to build them together, really have that bonding and also get ready for their season.”

If there’s one message Cavallini said the girls here need to take away, “is to just dream big. Set your goals, have those goals that you want to work toward.

“For me, it was always wanting to reach the Olympics. That was my end goal. I always had to have little goals to kind of find my way to make it to that next level. Work hard and have fun. I think that’s something I truly, truly look by, especially as I got older.”