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Introduction

Women have been playing hockey as long as men, but the women's game developed much more erratically and more slowly such that by the time the Second World War began the women's game was virtually extinct while the NHL had become the most important league in the world and the Stanley Cup hockey's most prized possession.

While early women's hockey flourished almost exclusively at the university level, its sophistication climaxed in the 1930s with the Preston Rivulettes, led by their star forward, Hilda Ranscombe. But with the war, the few women who played the game had to devote their lives to their husbands, the war efforts, and more practical matters, and the game never gained any widespread appeal again until the establishment of the Lipstick tournament in 1967 and the formation of the OWHA in 1975.

After the first (and unofficial) world women's championship in 1987, women's hockey truly came into its own. Three years later, the IIHF gave it further legitimacy, and eight years after that it became an Olympic sport. Today, women's hockey is played by more girls in Canada than the rest of the world combined, while the USA has provided enough top players to maintain a fierce and consistent rivalry. True, these two teams have had no serious competition, but that does not devalue the quality of the game, the skill of the best players, and the validity of the sport.

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