"I fell in love with the sound of the game: the skate blades cutting the ice, the wood stick hitting the puck," Stepanek says.

Stepanek, who was born and raised in Southern California, remembers being on ice skates "maybe once" before that day.

A few months after watching the game, Stepanek attended the Northern California Women's Hockey League's annual "give hockey a try day." The NCWHL is a recreational Bay Area league. That day Stepanek wore gear loaned by league members. The next day she went out and bought all the equipment she needed to play. Soon after, she was a novice skater playing in the beginners division in the NCWHL.

Stepanek, who now lives in Sunnyvale, is one of a growing number of women and girls playing ice hockey. The number of women registered with USA Hockey--the national governing body for the sport in the United States--has grown tremendously in recent years.

"In 1990 in the U.S. there were 6,000 females registered. In 2000 it was 36,000," Kathy McGarrigle says. "In 10 years it went up 600 percent." McGarrigle is a committee member for the Pacific girls and women's division of USA Hockey, and she is also head coach of the Anaheim Lady Ducks.

USA Hockey reports that the number of adult women players doubled between the seasons of 1997-98 and 2003-04. That number is still growing. The largest growth, however, is now in girls hockey with the upsurge in the 10-under age group.

Hockey enthusiasts point to three possible factors for the increased interest in the Bay Area: the nationwide passage of Title IX in 1972, the arrival of the San Jose Sharks in 1990 and the first women's Olympic hockey tournament in 1998 in Nagano, Japan, when the U.S. took the gold.

"That's when girls realized, hey, I can do this," Theresa Leslie says.

Leslie grew up in Campbell knowing nothing about hockey, but says it's different for her hockey-playing son and two daughters.

Kelly, 11, Leslie's middle child, plans on sticking with hockey long enough to earn a college scholarship.

Women's Olympic hockey also caught the eye of Willow Glen resident Heather McLane.

"My husband was a big Sharks fan and I picked it up from him," McLane says.

She grew to love the sport but, until she saw the United States team play Canada, she had never considered getting on the ice.

"It was a different kind of hockey than NHL hockey," McLane says. "The women seem to play more strategically whereas the men seem to have the 'shoot first, sort things out later' frame of mind."

This strategy was what attracted McLane to the sport.

"I have a fabulous time," she says. "It's very social."

McLane plays on two women's hockey teams, one in the NCWHL and the other at Ice Oasis in Redwood City. She's mostly a defense player but has played every position.

"It's important to be flexible," she says.

Women such as Leslie and McLane, now in their 30s and older, didn't think about getting a hockey scholarship when they were growing up. In fact, they didn't think about playing hockey at all.

Title IX changed that.

Equal playing time

For her master's thesis in kinesiology, McGarrigle wrote "Female Ice Hockey in the United States: 1892-1999." She found that Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity, had a profound affect on women in sports. The legislation basically forced colleges and universities to fund girls' sports at the same level as boys. Previously few opportunities existed for girls interested in athletics to participate, or earn scholarships.

McGarrigle found that in the 10-year period following passage of Title IX, the number of girls participating in varsity sports--not just ice hockey--more than doubled.

"Title IX has had a domino effect on girls' sports," she says.

As opportunities opened, sports and scholarships were made available to girls, and demand naturally grew beyond educational boundaries. In the case of hockey, college-age girls graduated, and became adults who wanted to continue playing competitively. So women's teams increased.

"Hockey grew in leaps and bounds," McGarrigle says.

Now girls are introduced to hockey at earlier ages, in some cases by mothers or grandmothers who play hockey.

McGarrigle says the Lady Ducks organized the first girls' 8-and-under team in California this year.

Christina Wilson knows about girls' hockey as well as anyone.

She spends nights and weekends shuttling her four daughters to ice rinks for games and practices. Her eldest daughter, Amber Moore, a 17-year-old junior at Fremont High School, caught the hockey bug watching her younger stepbrother play. It didn't take long before her sisters followed.

Despite growing up on the East Coast, where hockey has been popular for generations, Wilson says it took her children's hockey involvement for her to be interested.

"Hockey is a lot of our family's life," Wilson says.

Before back surgery last year Wilson was playing in the NCWHL and on a tournament-level team. She also officiated games and continues to be the scorekeeper coordinator for NCWHL.

Women on ice

Women's hockey in California actually dates back to 1892, McGarrigle says, but the number of players was small, especially in comparison with the last two decades. McGarrigle says she has little information on this time period but says that the women dressed in full gear--such as it was at the time.

In 1990 there were no women's hockey teams in the Pacific region of USA Hockey--the region includes states from Alaska to California. By 1999, there were 36. Today, there are 100.

It's not uncommon to find women over 30 playing for the first time.

Wilson was over 40 when she first played. McGarrigle was 21 when she started and, like Stepanek, who was in her 30s when she first played, both grew up in Southern California.

Dana Angus grew up in Cupertino with the Ice Center at Vallco nearby, but she came to love ice hockey as an adult. Angus says her husband practically dragged her to her first San Jose Sharks game in "about the team's third season." Three months later they were season-ticket holders.

Today, Angus--who now lives in Almaden Valley--captains a co-ed team at Logitech Ice in San Jose, and her husband is on the team. She also coaches her son's team.

Happy enough as a fan, Angus initially had no inclination to play. She took a hockey class at Logitech to learn the sport better and found she loved it even more.

"To me this is the ultimate team sport. I liked the speed, and just the fitness level that the players are at. It just clicked," she says.

Wilson says, "The game itself is about teamwork and geometry and flow."

Some of the players grew up with the sport.

Angus' teammates Kim Larioza and Joelle Thornton are Canadian.

Larioza says she was on skates at 18 months, and Thornton, because there was no girls' team when she was growing up, played on a boys' team at ages 4 through 6.

But Thornton switched to figure skating, and Larioza to ringette, another Canadian favorite, which is a hockey-like game played with a straight stick and a ring.

Larioza missed being on the ice and encouraged her husband, Robert, a Philippines native, to learn to skate just two years ago. They are now teammates.

"My wife's Canadian; I had to learn to skate," he says laughing.

Thornton's husband is Scott Thornton, the veteran left-winger for the San Jose Sharks.

Scott Thornton's checking, fighting and gritty style of play in the NHL is not a part of the non-checking recreational leagues such as NCWHL or the Logitech Ice Adult Hockey League. (Checking is essentially hitting or bumping a player to disrupt the play or get them to give up the puck. There are various levels of checking.)

"Girls' hockey is a way different game than the boys' game. People think it's all about checking," Wilson says.

It's more about positioning and passing, she says.

Women who talk about their sport get raised eyebrows from those who have never tried a slap-shot or lifted a stick to disrupt a play or turned a skate to block a pass.

"The first thing people ask you is if you have all your teeth," Stepanek says.

Tall and athletic, Stepanek, in spite of having all her teeth, looks more the hockey player than some of the mothers, grandmothers and other women playing the sport. All shapes, sizes, athletic ability, ages and ethnicities are found in women's hockey.

Leslie, 45, had skated only eight times in her life when she was drawn to hockey in her mid-20s. She joined a co-ed team because there was no women's league at the time. Some of the men back then were "not very nice" to the women players. Leslie recalls hearing men say women didn't belong on the ice.

It almost dissuaded her, but she continued playing. She believes men are more accustomed to seeing women on the ice now and, for the most part, treat them fairly.

Tony Sanchez, who plays on the Cheap Skates team--with Angus, Larioza and Thornton--and other co-ed teams, says he does tend to lighten up a bit when he comes up against a woman on the ice.

"Sometimes I get burned by that--the whole chivalry thing. I don't bump them and take them off the puck. They take the puck and go," he says.

Leslie chuckles, agreeing with him. She says she does take advantage of guys like Sanchez.

Leslie is taking her game to a different level.

Last summer she formed a traveling team, Lady Sharks--part of the San Jose Junior Sharks program--that plans to compete at the national level in 2007 in a tournament in San Jose.

She and Stepanek, who is also on the Lady Sharks, play in the most advanced division of the NCWHL. Women such as Stepanek and Leslie who play in multiple leagues say their hearts are always in the NCWHL, the all-women's league. Women's leagues weren't there when they were young, and they want to see the leagues succeed for future generations.

"I don't ever want to quit playing in the NCWHL. I want there to be a place for my daughters to play. It's like a dream of mine to be out there playing with my daughters," Leslie says.

For more information about the Northern California Women's Hockey League, go to www.ncwhl.com. For more information about the Ice Center at Vallco, go to www.icecenter.net/cupertino. For more information about Logitech Ice Adult Hockey League, go to www.logitechice.com.

Staff Writer Mayra Flores DeMarcotte contributed to the story.