Stacey Quirk happy with Great Britain's steady progress after day one

Stacey Quirk scored the first goal of the 2023 Para Ice Hockey Women’s World Challenge presented by Citi on Thursday, 31 August — a quick signal of how far Great Britain has come in the sport since only starting a women’s team two years ago.

In July 2021, Great Britain launched their women’s Para ice hockey programme and received 63 replies upon making a public call for women with lower limb impairments. In their international debut last year at the inaugural Women’s World Challenge, the British squad scored one goal in four games.

In the opening game in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Quirk already matched that mark halfway through the first period with a successful wrister that warped its way into the net.

“That was very special for me and a long-time coming, as I’m usually not the goal scorer, and without the support of the team I never would have gotten that,” said Quirk.

Quirk previously served as a combat medical technician before an accident forced her to have her leg amputated. Since then, she’s taken up both sitting volleyball and Para ice hockey, while pursuing three degrees and a full-time job with the NHS. As the team captain, Quirk holds a forever looking forward motto.

“There are no words to say how much the team has grown since we started,” she said. "We’ve learned that we all make mistakes and we’re fallible, but it’s what we do next that counts and that’s what’s helping our team.” 

After Quirk’s goal, Team World’s Ailin Zheng tied up the score with 3:37 remaining in the first, and Maren Norheim found the net in the second stanza to double Team World’s lead. In the third period, Lena Schroeder — one of only three women to play at the Paralympics in the sport — scored twice and Caroline Persson added a tally to give Team World the 5-1 victory.

Composed of athletes from 11 different countries, Team World also showed tremendous improvement over last year at the Cornerstone Community Center, where the tournament is being held for the second consecutive year.

“We really feel like a team, and managed to be beat Great Britain which feels like a great start and we hope to keep that momentum going,” said Dina Grinberga of Latvia, named Player of the Game for Team World after contributing two assists.

Regardless of the result, the British coaching staff were ecstatic about the growth of their programme in such a short amount of time. Following last year’s Women’s World Challenge, four members of the British squad went on to help Great Britain’s national team win gold at the World Championships C-Pool in Bangkok, Thailand, including Quirk. Great Britain finished that tournament undefeated and advanced to the 2023 World Championships B-Pool.

“Last year, the team had only been together 10 months and you could tell that. This year they’ve got speed, are tactically more aware, their skating’s improved, and they’re fighting for the puck a lot more,” said Great Britain’s head coach Ian Offers. “Last year they were out here chasing shadows and this year we’ve shown we can be very competitive and hold our own.”

USA blank Canada 3-0

In the evening game in Green Bay, defending champions USA shut out Canada, 3-0. US captain Kelsey Lee DiClaudio found the net first, pushing herself up to the edge of the crease before tapping in the puck at the 6:36 mark in the opening period. Lera Doederlein, a dual-sport athlete, doubled the US lead with a goal 19 seconds later.

Midway through the second stanza, American 18-year-old Catherine Faherty notched her first score of the tournament off helper from Jamie Benassi to complete the tally for the winners.

“We did what we wanted to do — the energy from the locker room to the ice to the end of the game was immaculate,” DiClaudio said. “We wanted to get on the board first and dictate things and we did that.”

Gabby Graves-Wake and Hope Bevilhymer combined for the shutout and 25 saves between the pipes for the US before skating off the ice to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” over the loudspeakers on their home ice, while netminder Jessie Gregory recorded a pair of saves for Canada.

Competition in Green Bay will continue on Friday (1 September) with Canada facing Team World at 15:00 local time and USA taking on Great Britain at 18:30.

Citi is the presenting sponsor of the event as part of the IPC’s PARA SPORT grassroots to high performance programme. The ultimate goal is to expand female participation in Para ice hockey worldwide and one day add it to the Paralympic Winter Games programme.

The second edition of the Women's World Challenge is being streamed live on the Green Bay 2023 website and World Para Ice Hockey Facebook page. More information and complete schedule and results can be found  here.