SHANNON CLEARY

At 3500 meters above sea level, nestled between the Kunlun Mountains and the Great Himalayas, the sparsely populated region of Ladakh in northern India might be the unlikeliest place to find an all-female hockey league. But there you’ll find the Ladakh Women Ice Hockey Foundation (LWIHF), a league that began with hand-me-down equipment and a rink made by the players’ own hands.

The participation of girls in hockey has skyrocketed over the past several years. In Calgary alone, registration for its all-female minor hockey association Girls Hockey Calgary (GHC) jumped by almost 200 players in two years. It’s the largest growth of any community association in the city. According to Hockey Alberta, there are 36 associations in the province that offer female programming, with more associations adding teams each year. But as young girls rush to take the ice, and as female players develop through the ranks, there is one position that’s often unfilled. Calgary female hockey teams are seeing a serious shortage of goaltenders.

On a Friday afternoon in November, I took my seven-year-old daughter to meet Rosie MacLellan, trampoline gymnast, World Champion and Olympic gold medalist. Rosie stood casually, warmly in the front of the room at the Winter Sports Institute at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary as girls filed inside and sat cross-legged on the floor.

Hockey is a game of greats. But for girls playing hockey in Calgary, there are names beyond Gretzky, Crosby and Lemieux. Organizations in the city are turning the spotlight towards Canada’s female hockey heroes in an effort to mentor an emerging generation of girls who love the game.