Maggie Connors鈥 parents couldn鈥檛 keep her away from hockey.
Her introduction to dance classes was a disaster, her father Sean Connors remembers 鈥 akin to an allergic reaction. And figure skating wasn鈥檛 any better.
She wanted to be where her older brothers were: At the stadium, out playing street hockey, or taking laps on the backyard rink.
鈥淟ike any good Canadian dad, I had a backyard rink,鈥 Sean said. 鈥淚鈥檇 set everything up, and Maggie 鈥 we couldn鈥檛 keep her in the house.鈥
Maggie Connors skates on a backyard rink as a young girl in St. John鈥檚, N.L. (Susan Fagan)
鈥淲e bought, kind of, the complete hockey kit in a box, Velcro skates, and we put them on her,鈥 he said.
鈥淲e looked at this little girl, and she鈥檚 maybe three and a half at the time鈥 and she鈥檚 going around the ice doing all the things that we鈥檝e been teaching the boys now for a year and a half to try to do.鈥
Maggie had an instant passion for hockey 鈥 so it just made sense that when her hockey heroes came to town in 2010, she鈥檇 be right there beside them.
Luck went her way: The 10-year-old won a contest to spend the day with the women鈥檚 national hockey team. She lined up for the anthem, sat in the dressing room, and even did warm up drills with the team.
There鈥檚 a lot to remember about that day: Her mother, Susan Fagan, remarks how small her daughter looked out on the ice, next to superstar Marie-Phillip Poulin.
It all means a little bit more now that Maggie is once again sporting the red Team Canada jersey, as a full member of the National Women鈥檚 Hockey Team.
Maggie played her first game with the team in February, during the last three games of the rivalry series between the Canadian and American women鈥檚 teams.
She helped the group complete a reverse-sweep of the Americans 鈥 a full comeback from a 3-0 deficit to take the seven game series, 4-3.
Maggie had worn Canadian colours before, but this was her first exposure to the top levels of the women鈥檚 game.
鈥淚t gets much faster and you need to have decisions made before you even get the puck,鈥 she said. We talk about something called 鈥0.5 hockey鈥 in terms of making decisions in less than a second.鈥
Maggie celebrated the moment in a photo, posed alongside Marie Phillip-Poulin and Natalie Spooner once again, this time as teammates.
Maggie Connors poses for a photo with teammates Marie Phillip-Poulin and Natalie Spooner during Rivalry Series action in February. (Maggie Connors)
She is the first Newfoundlander to play in the Professional Women鈥檚 Hockey League, and the second-youngest player to play in the league this year.
She signed with PWHL Toronto, where she is teammates with Natalie Spooner 鈥 the very player she was paired with on her day with the women鈥檚 national team in 2010.
The winger didn鈥檛 relay that bit of trivia to Spooner, or the rest of the team, right away.
鈥淢y first impression, I don鈥檛 think, can be 鈥楬ey Natalie Spooner, do you remember when I was 10?,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 was obviously, like, just kind of playing it cool.鈥
But word got out when a reporter uncovered the pictures from the 4 Nations Cup in Newfoundland in 2010.
鈥淭hey were awesome about it,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he girls love the story now, so it鈥檚 fun.鈥
Now that she鈥檚 near the top of the women鈥檚 game, Maggie said she has a new appreciation for the experience she got when she was a 10-year-old girl in St. John鈥檚.
鈥淵ou kind of learn, when you鈥檙e at this level, of how massive little fan interactions can be, and how impactful it can be on young players.鈥
Her father remembers one of the first things she said when she got home was how kind all the players on the national team were.
Maggie is dedicated to paying that kindness forward.
鈥淎ny time I鈥檓 able to get back to Newfoundland and meet young girls and people that are coming up in Hockey N.L. and things, I try to stay involved as much as I can.鈥
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