Las Vegas’ best female hockey players leave town to play

Ashley Printzen (97), a 16-year-old from Las Vegas who plays on an all-girls Midget AAA team in Littleton, Colo., the Colorado Selects.

Ashley Printzen (97), a 16-year-old from Las Vegas who plays on an all-girls Midget AAA team in Littleton, Colo., the Colorado Selects, carries the puck in a Dec. 4 game against Ontario. Photo courtesy of Aimee Sanderson

Ashley Printzen and Gia Avalone are members of a small sisterhood.

According to statistics from USA Hockey, Printzen, 16, and Avalone, 13, are two of only 60 girls registered in Nevada to play youth hockey. With few competitive options, Printzen had to leave the state to find girls-only competition, and Avalone might follow Printzen’s path as she gets older.

But that could change now that Las Vegas has its own NHL team. The Golden Knights say they are committed to growing girls hockey at the grassroots level. The team plans to launch an initiative as early as this fall.

“It’s a really fast-paced game, and it takes a lot of skill to play,” said Avalone, a defenseman for the Las Vegas Storm’s Bantam AA team and its only girl. “It takes a lot of hard work, especially playing against boys.”

In girls’ hockey, body checking is not permitted. It is allowed in the boys’ game.

Printzen, a forward who attends high school through online classes at Nevada Connections Academy, plays on a girls-only Midget AAA team in Littleton, Colorado. She also plays on a women’s 20-under team in Shelbourne, Ontario.

“It’s hard being away,” she said. “I miss my mom and hanging out with my friends. But I love playing hockey. It’s something I can do when I’m in a bad mood and it makes me happy.”

Avalone and Printzen hope their travels lead to a scholarship to play college hockey. According to the NCAA, 36 schools have Division I women’s hockey teams. At the Division III level, there are 58 schools. At Division II, there are four programs.

Murray Craven, the Golden Knights’ senior vice president whose daughter Sara plays hockey at the University of Calgary, said the team is committed to sponsoring girls hockey.

“As girls get older, they want to play with other girls,” Craven said. “It will take some time to grow, but our intention is to get the girls out there skating and teach them how to play and have girls-only teams.”

Avalone and Printzen likely won’t benefit from the proposed Golden Knights’ program. They’re too advanced. But they hope it will result in more girls playing in Southern Nevada.

“It’s going to take some time, but hopefully a lot of girls will discover hockey and they’ll see how much fun it is to play,” Printzen said.

Steve Carp’s weekly NHL notebook appears Sundays. Contact him at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.