Notre Dame Academy, an all-girls school in Hingham, Mass., rang in 2024 with a championship win at the Tenney Cup.
A decade ago, that holiday tournament at the Bog in Kingston, Mass., didn’t exist.
The Tenney Cup, which organizers expect to grow into an even bigger event in future years, is one of many testaments to the explosion that women’s hockey is experiencing, both nationally and locally.
From 2013 to 2023, the number of girls and women participating in hockey nationally increased by 39 percent, from 65,700 players to 91,254. (By comparison, the growth of male hockey players over the same period was just 4.6 percent.)
New England is an epicenter for the growth of women’s hockey. The increase of female skaters has been strong here, especially in Massachusetts, which has experienced a 21 percent jump since 2013. Only one state, Minnesota, has more female hockey players than Massachusetts.
In this story, we'll explore how the sport has exploded in popularity and how it is poised to grow even more in the years ahead.
