Ice in their veins: the women who changed ice hockey forever

In an extract from his new book, Ian Kennedy explains how female players adapted equipment that was suited for their male counterparts

Growing up in New England, Kelly Dyer was a product of the Bobby Orr explosion. On the streets outside her house, neighborhood kids emulated their hero. Dyer pieced together a set of goalie pads from garbage she found in dumpsters, her sewing kit and shoe glue. Soon, Massachusetts began building more arenas and it was on one of these rinks that Dyer first stepped on the ice.

I started as a figure skater because at the time that was the only way girls could get on the ice," Dyer recalls. But my brother David, who's two years older, was a hockey player so I would get off the figure skating rink and run over to the hockey rink to watch. I always wanted to play hockey and begged for two years until my father found Assabet in Concord, the next town over. My first day of skating with Assabet was in my brother's equipment with figure skates."

The following is an excerpt from the new book, Ice In Their Veins: Women's Relentless Pursuit of the Puck, by Ian Kennedy.