Michelle McAfee - CRR Staff

Wearing pounds of padding and gear, and the weight of the game on her shoulders, Glennallen High School hockey player Brooklyn Allain takes position in the goalie box at the Arctic Winter Games in Alberta, Canada. Her laser focus scans the ice for her defense, anticipating where teammates will position themselves from moment to moment as a rival opponent barrels down the ice toward her. In an instant, a stick hurtles a five-ounce, one-inch thick puck of vulcanized rubber like it was shot from a cannon toward the net as Allain braces to block the shot.

Brooklyn Allain, a fifteen-year-old sophomore, was selected to play on the Women’s Hockey Team for Team Alaska in the 2023 Arctic Winter Games, hosted by Wood Buffalo, Alberta, Canada, January 29 – February 4, 2023. The biennial multi-sport indigenous cultural event was founded in 1969 for people living in communities bordering the Arctic Ocean.

Allain started playing hockey when she was seven years old. Starting as a regular skater, she initially didn’t like the sport. But after spending more time on the ice, it didn’t take her long to realize she absolutely loved being a goalie.

Her dad was a “really good” goalie in high school. That’s what everybody told Allain, and it was easy for her to learn out on the ice from his experience. It’s more mental than physical, especially being the only goalie on a hockey team. “It’s a lot of pressure mentally to do good in every single game. And to not get myself hurt,” said Allain.

The Arctic Winter Games felt like a mini-Olympics to Allain because of the set-up. The athletes were housed in one place, a large building initially meant for oilers who worked on oil fields, with a big cafeteria and each athlete occupying their own room.

Team Alaska brought kids together from all over the state.The Women’s Hockey Team had players from Eagle River, Juneau, Kodiak, Anchorage, and Point Hope. How much practice did the team get before competing at the Games? Absolutely none. Each hockey team at the competition was supposed to get at least one practice together before the games began, but there wasn’t enough ice time for everybody, so they canceled the entire practice.

“That was disappointing. As a goalie, I see everything on the ice. I know when players are in position. I probably know what they will do next and where they will go with the puck. I see where the other teammates are going to come from. I see everything,” said Allain.

Not getting to practice in Alberta hindered her from studying how her team played. She didn’t know what her offense was going to do or where her defense players would position themselves, and she said, “It’s tough to play off a team when I don’t know their positioning.”

Playing on her home team in Glennallen for so long, with many of the same kids, helped Allain build trust in her team. Especially with defense, she said, “If I can know and trust my defense, it helps me be more aggressive in my gameplay and overall be a better me.”

From a goalie’s perspective, Allain said the most challenging part of playing hockey is feeling like every single goal is a bullet that you have to stop. When up against a tough team, it’s hard to score. If the goalie lets even a single goal inside the net, there’s a good chance the team won’t get it back. “When you’re losing a game or winning a game, it can feel like your fault,” said Allain.

In Alberta, Allain had a tough first game. The rink was hot, and underneath all the padding, she overheated. “That wasn’t very fun,” she said, “But the second rink was much colder and was so amazing. They played music between whistles, had spotlights and concessions, and a big TV screen attached to the ceiling in the middle of the ice, so every time a cool block or goal happened, they showed the replay. Being able to experience something like that was very surreal.”

Several countries participated in the games, including Greenland and Finland. They don’t have hockey teams, so Team Alaska played Canadian teams and went up against Alberta, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Nunavut.

Allain said there weren’t many applicants in Alaska for this year’s Arctic Winter Games due to limited advertising. Mat-Su will host the next Arctic Winter Games, where Allain hopes to play again on her home turf.

“The pure adrenaline rush is what gets me. When it’s a high-intensity game, like 0 - 0 on the clock for all three periods, and nobody has scored – those games are super fun. It pushes me to try my hardest,” she said. She went on to describe the feeling of locking her eyes onto a skater coming down from the other end of the ice saying, “They’re like, ‘I’m so going to make this shot, I’m going to make it...’ then I end up blocking it in the last second. It’s just such a good feeling!”

The gold and silver medals for women’s hockey went to Alberta North, and the bronze went to Yukon in this year’s games. Allain said it was a great experience getting to play in Alberta and looks forward to next year’s games and beyond.

After graduating from Glennallen High School, Allain hopes to go to Boston College on an athletic scholarship, stating that their women’s hockey league is “really good.” But she doesn’t want to make a career of it after college and said, “I want to go into the medical field. It’ll probably hurt a lot knowing I won’t be playing competitively after high school or college, but that’s something I’ve been preparing myself for.”

And for the younger kids learning hockey, coming up behind her, Allain said, “Just try your hardest because the harder you try, the better you’ll get. The more you keep at it, it’ll just come to you. You’ve got to build that love for hockey. If you don’t love something, it will be hard to have the motivation to get better at it and push yourself. Just go for it!”

More Glennallen School Sport Coverage:

Local Skiers Grow at Nordic Ski Regionals

Glennallen Nordic Ski Team Competes at First Meet of the Season

Trophies, Travels and Epic Adventures

Glennallen Wrestlers Clinch State Title

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The First Snowmachine Ascent of Mount Wrangell