Tag: kendall coyne

BEIJING, CHINA – Before she was an Olympic hockey gold medalist, before she became the first woman to compete in the NHL’s all-star skills contests or was hired by the Chicago Blackhawks as a player development coach and youth hockey growth specialist, Kendall Coyne Schofield was the Hockey Girl with the Braid.

She fell in love with hockey while growing up in the Chicago suburbs, copying her older brother Kevin as they rollerbladed around their basement and blasted pucks at the walls. The photogenic dimple on the right side of her face isn’t a blessing of genetics: it’s the souvenir of a slapshot taken by Kevin.

Their parents let him play hockey and enrolled her in figure skating classes, no small expense for a family that grew to four children. She quit after two sessions. “I need the sport,” she told her stunned parents. They gave in — and learned to braid her hair to keep it out of the way when she wore her hockey helmet.

SAN JOSE, CA – Kendall Coyne Schofield owns one Olympic and five World Championship gold medals, but Friday night was one for posterity.

“This is definitely a top three moment in my career,” she said.

It was so much more than that. Friday night was a watershed moment for women athletes everywhere, proof that as much as the NHL says it, hockey really is for everyone.

Coyne Schofield became the first woman to participate in the NHL’s Skills Competition at All-Star Weekend in San Jose.

Previously, the NHL used the top Canadian and American women stars only to demonstrate the Skills Competition drills.

But in a Fastest Skater competition in which the All-Star veterans have bowed out in recent years because they didn’t want to be embarrassed by Connor McDavid, Coyne Schofield readily laced up her skates in place of injured Colorado Avalanche starNathan MacKinnon.

GANGNEUNG, SOUTH KOREA — Kendall Coyne — the pride of Palos Heights, IL — wore Olympic gold early Thursday morning as the U.S. women’s hockey team beat Canada in an improbable victory — the first for American women in 20 years.

The women’s gold-medal hockey win — 38 years to the day after the famous “Miracle on Ice” at Lake Placid — came in a 3-2 thriller against the U.S. team’s greatest rival and ended Canada’s bid for a fifth straight gold. This win is one for the history books, too.

After the game, Coyne celebrated with her teammates, skating across the ice with fellow forward Hilary Knight while holding an American flag overhead.

NEW YORK CITY, NY – Widely considered one of the top female forwards in the World, Kendall Coyne of Palos Heights, IL, was named to her second consecutive Olympics for Team USA. The rosters were announced for the 2018 U.S. Olympic Men’s, Women’s and Paralympic Ice Hockey Teams during the second intermission of the NHL Winter Classic at Citi Field in New York City.

Coyne was the leading scorer for Team USA at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and is a key returner for America’s highly touted squad.