Colorado Avalanche Host Second Annual Girls Hockey Night

The Colorado Avalanche focus on girls and women in hockey at their second annual Girls Hockey Night.

Last year the Colorado Avalanche hosted their first ever Girls Hockey Night. The event proved to be successful and has now become an annual occurance. Last week the Avalanche hosted their second event when the team played the Arizona Coyotes.

The event covered all areas of the game, from having girls selling programs in their jerseys, to making the ceremonial puck drop.

The girls were joined by Michele Amidon, who is the Avalanche’s NHL Female Ambassador. Amidon is a silver medal world champion as well as former head coach of a girls NCAA team and a former manager of the women’s national team (both adult and U18)

The team had some of the younger female players on the ice to compete in a relay race

Last year the Avalanche had Lauren Gardner announcing the Avalanche game, and this tradition has continued with Lauren Jbara calling the game this time.

One lucky girl got to bring the team back onto the ice for the second period and she did a fantastic job.

This year has seen the Avalanche become more diverse with their former ice girls becoming part of a mixed gender Ice Patrol. One ice patrol member, Natalie Wedell, talked about playing hockey growing up.

With women’s hockey still struggling to get the same attention and investment that the men’s game does it’s encouraging to see teams like the Avalanche focusing on women’s hockey at a grass roots level. If all of the NHL teams ran events like this it would do wonders for female hockey players of all ages.

Colorado Avalanche’s Girls Hockey Night will be back next year.