Paving the way: 3 former N.L. players reminisce about the beginnings of women's hockey at Canada Games

Watching Newfoundland and Labrador's women's hockey team take the ice in for a qualifying game Thursday night at the Canada Winter Games in P.E.I is bringing back a lot of memories for Marion Druken. 

Back in 1991, she played forward for the province's first women's hockey team at the Canada Games — also held on P.E.I. 

Forming a team back then, says Druken, was a lot harder, as girls playing hockey was still a novelty.

"St. John's women's hockey was really just kind of starting, as well as Mount Pearl and around the province," she said. 

"I remember going to a couple of camps and thinking that I was pretty good. And then I saw a lot of talent around the province and I was like, 'wow, it's not just me.'"

This year's team has won two of its three preliminary games and finished second in its group heading into the qualifying game. 

But back in 1991, Druken and her teammates lost all of their games that year, and ended the tournament in last place.

Goalies Sandi Noseworthy of St. John's and Kim Stone of Bryant's Cove were part of that team.

Being surrounded by other female hockey players, said Stone, was a great experience in a time when girls had to fight to play hockey.

"I remember when we first got up there [to PEI], ... we went to this talk in an auditorium where it was all the female teams," said Stone. "It was pretty awesome to be in that room and seeing the room was full of all these girls who were doing the same thing."

Among them were a pair of players destined to become household names — Hayley Wickenheiser and Cassie Campbell-Pascal, who would go on to national hockey careers.

Provincially, said Stone, the women's hockey scene back then wasn't big — and less accepting of girls wanting to play hockey. When Stone