She was the sole girl on the boys' hockey team. Decades later, she's cheering on the PWHL

When an 11-year-old Dagmar Boettcher lined up for a face-off during a hockey game in 1964, she overheard a conversation that's stuck with her for decades.

"I could hear two elderly women sitting in the stands right behind me," she recounted. "And I heard one of them say to the other, 'Muriel, I think that's a girl.'"

"The other one said, 'Don't be ridiculous. That's not a girl.'"

But it was a girl — a girl in love with hockey, and the only one on her school's hockey team.

"I loved running around, I loved the wind against me. I loved just having fun and the team spirit and the camaraderie," the 70-year-old told The Current's Matt Galloway.

Although it was uncommon to see a woman playing organized hockey — Boettcher believes she played just one game against the boys — at the time, it isn't now. That's in large part to leagues like the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).

The six-team league opened its debut season on New Year's Day, when New York blanked Toronto 4-0. The regular season goes on until May 5, with the playoffs starting the next day.

The PWHL's debut game was watched by nearly three million viewers through the league's three Canadian national broadcast partners.

Boettcher was one of them, and she struggled to hold back tears when she saw the women take the ice on television.

"I was very emotional — and still am most of the time," said the Ontario native. 

Although some of those tears were joyful, Boettcher said she feels some sadness, too.

"If the times had been different, that could have been me, that I might have had that opportunity," she said.

Boettcher's love of hockey started young. One Christmas morning, her younger sisters received baby carriages for their dolls, but an eight-year-old Boettcher