'A bit surreal': 1st female 'Cup Keeper' talks journey with hockey's holy grail

Miragh Bitove vividly remembers her first time seeing the Stanley Cup.

She was a teenager. A cousin was visiting from out of town. Her dad suggested they head to the Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto and take a look.

When the pair hit the top step of the staircase leading to the sport's silver chalice, Bitove was in awe.

"Nothing like it," she recalled. "There's a glow."

An art history and museum management major, Bitove went on to work as a Hall of Fame post-secondary intern in 2003 before parlaying that into a job as an archivist at the venue.

Years later, she's taken another massive leap — as the first woman in the "Cup Keeper" role on the annual celebration tour.

Bitove, her white gloves on whenever there's a chance she might touch the trophy, hit the road with colleagues last summer, crisscrossing North America as the Vegas Golden Knights basked in the glory of their victory.

"We see a bit of everything," Bitove said. "From wedding-sized parties right down to potlucks in grandma's garage. It's great watching people's natural reactions.

"Incredibly special."

What's also special is Bitove blazing a trail handling the Cup.

The mother of three — two boys and a girl — doesn't want special treatment. She also understands the attention in a sport that, while beginning to change, has been dominated by men for the better part of a century.

"A bit surreal," Bitove said of being the first woman in the job. "That part doesn't really enter into my train of thought.

"When you go out on these trips, you get some sad faces in the house. I've always said, 'I want to go out there and travel so that other girls can see me working in hockey."'

Bitove has also turned some heads on those gruelling journeys that can last 10 or 11