They shared the experience of playing on a national girls hockey team. Layla Marvin, Karley Sylvester and Abby Ness traveled together to Stockholm. They were teammates on the gold medal-winning United States team.
For a few hours on Tuesday night, however, all that will be forgotten. The Warroad-Roseau rivalry on the ice supersedes everything.
"It won't change anything," Marvin said. "It will still be the same old rivalry. But after the game, I'm sure we'll talk and laugh together. Abby is a good friend."
Marvin and Sylvester play for the Warroad High School girls hockey team. Ness plays for Roseau, which hosts Warroad on Tuesday. Together, they played on the U.S. team that won the International Ice Hockey Federation World U18 Championship, which was played in Sweden earlier this month.
"Everyone dreams of playing at that level," Sylvester said. "To do that, to do what we did -- I don't think it's really sunk in yet. My jersey and my medal are in my room at home. You see them, you think about (the tournament) and remember stuff. It's still sort of a dream."
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Players went through a series of tryouts to make the team. There were 20 players on the squad from across the country. That three players from two small communities located 20 miles apart in northwestern Minnesota were among the 20 selected "was pretty crazy," Ness said. "We have good hockey traditions up here. But it's still pretty crazy."
All three forwards contributed to the success of the U.S. team, which went 5-0 in the tournament.
Ness finished with three goals and two assists. Sylvester had a goal and four assists. Marvin was the big scorer of the trio. She had six goals, including a hat trick in a 14-1 semifinal win against the Czech Republic, with Sylvester getting an assist on all three scores. Marvin also had a goal in the 5-2 win against Canada in the gold-medal game.
Marvin and Sylvester skated on the same line, just as they have for years at Warroad. "We've played together for so long," Sylvester said. "It was great to be together there. We have a connection -- Layla knows where I'm going to be, I know where she'll be. It makes it easier to play."
One thing the trio learned was that, except for the six players from Minnesota, other members of the national team played club hockey rather than high school hockey. Marvin and Sylvester were standouts on the Warroad team that won the Minnesota Class A state title last season and is ranked first in the state this season.
"A lot of our teammates (on the national team) thought we were crazy playing on a high school team," said Marvin. "But this is what we do. High school hockey in Minnesota is competitive.
"Winning state, with the teammates I've grown up with, was awesome. Wearing the red, white and blue of your country, that was an honor; to win gold was awesome. Not many people get that kind of opportunity."
For the players, the excitement of a trip to Europe was all on the ice. There was little time set aside for sightseeing.
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"It was practices, skating and games except for a few days," Sylvester said. "We got one day off and our whole team went curling. That was fun. None of us are curlers. We all had our share of wipeouts on the ice. And we had one day where we took a tour of the city on a bus. We did a little shopping. We got in enough of being tourists. We were there to win a gold medal."
That became mission accomplished in the win against Canada. The players said they were nervous prior to the game and during warm-ups, but that ended once the puck dropped. Marvin's goal early in the second period gave the U.S. a 3-0 lead.
When the game ended, an awards ceremony followed.
"It was like a dream," Ness said. "We stood on the blue line while the national anthem was played. Our whole team was singing it.
"I think it took awhile for it all to sink in. But once we got home, you'd think about it and it was like, 'wow.' It's still pretty hard to believe."
DeVillers reports on sports. Reach him at (701) 780-1128; (800) 477-6572, ext. 128; or send e-mail to gdevillers@gfherald.com .
