The 2024-25 iteration of the Rivalry Series continues Sunday night in Boise, Idaho.
For Team USA captain Hilary Knight, game three of the 2024-25 Rivalry Series, presented by Discover, at Idaho Central Arena comes with personal significance.
It will be by far the closest to a home game that Knight has gotten to play with Team USA. She’s spent much of her life in Sun Valley, Idaho, and her family still lives in the mountain town a few hours east of Boise.
“It’s incredibly special to play in Idaho,” Knight said. “In the past I’ve said I wish we could bring this show, this team through the mountain region so people can see just how skilled the squad is and how amazing this rivalry is. Now it’s finally happening.”
With the Utah Hockey Club playing their inaugural NHL season and the announcement of the 2034 Winter Olympic Games returning to Salt Lake City, it’s possible hockey has never been more popular in the mountain states.
Knight and U.S. teammate Taylor Heise recently visited the area to promote the upcoming series, skating with youth players and appearing at an NHL game.
“It’s super important for the mountain regions to see these strong, powerful women and for us to be able to inspire them and have a positive impact through sport,” Knight said. “We don’t regularly get out here to this area, so it’s a really unique opportunity.”
A Minnesota native who’s played her whole career in the hockey hotbed, Heise said she’d never been to the mountain area of the country and was happy to see the enthusiasm people were showing for hockey.
“This area is going to be a new hockey hotbed,” Heise said. “There’s so much hockey excitement right now and I don’t know if they know what to do with it. I’m excited we get to bring the women’s game here. We’re trying to get everyone in the stands and to see how important the sport is and how cool it can be here.”
As the profile for women’s sports continues to rise, Knight said it’s important that this normally underserved area for hockey gets to see the national team and what’s possible for women and girls in hockey.
There are currently no NCAA-sponsored college hockey programs west of Minnesota — the skate with Olympians event Heise and Knight did in Utah was in conjunction with the University of Utah women’s club hockey team. Knight is hopeful that is something that changes in the coming years and more girls that grow up like she did have the…
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