How a girls' hockey team from Nain found themselves at a PWHL playoff game

It's a trip they will remember for a lifetime. Girls from Nain had the opportunity to travel to Montreal to watch a Professional Women's Hockey League playoff game.

The trip came to be when TSN's Breaking Down Barriers, a series that highlights individuals and organizations who want to change hockey culture, did a feature on the team and their community.

"We know hockey is [a] pretty exclusive sport, so we want to share and tell those stories and highlight programs that are welcoming to everybody," the show's host, Saroya Tinker, told CBC Radio's Labrador Morning.

Tinker is taking on a director role this reason, directing the episode featuring the girls from Nain. On top of her role with TSN, Tinker is the manager of diversity, equity and inclusion with the PWHL. 

A crew filmed the girls in Nain to get a sense of the community and the things they do there. Then came the most exciting part of the experience for the team — actually heading to Montreal to catch the PWHL playoff game.

Air Canada and the PWHL were major sponsors of the trip, but Julie Dicker, a team chaperone during the trip, says it wouldn't have been possible without funding from the Aboriginal Sport and Recreation Circle Newfoundland and Labrador.

"It almost wasn't going to happen because of the cost of the trip from Goose Bay to Nain and return," Dicker said. "It was through Aboriginal Sport [and] Recreation Circle N.L., thankfully for them that they came through and funded that part of the trip for the girls."

In addition to arranging for them to watch a PWHL game, Tinker and an Air Canada representative worked together to create an itinerary full of events to keep the girls busy and having fun.

Nain girls’ hockey team flown to PWHL playoffs for