Since I arrived back on the Dartmouth campus yesterday afternoon, I have been overwhelmed by all of the amazing memories from my college hockey career. As I skated out on the ice yesterday for the alumni game, I remembered one of the greatest “success stories” that happened at the end of my first semester at college.

It’s still hard for me to believe that 10 years ago, I was a college freshman. I remember the exact moment when our coach told us that we were going to play against “the” Team USA – the team that had just won the gold medal at the Nagano Olympics. I had just watched these women pull off the big upset against Canada and now I was going to be facing off against them on the ice. I was both excited and scared out of my mind at the same time.

Even though I was really nervous going into the game, I realized that there was really no pressure on us and that made it much easier to prepare. Don’t get me wrong – we would have loved to pull off the huge upset in front of the sold-out crowd of 4000, but everyone knew that Team USA was going to win in the end.

Once we got out on the ice, it was clear that we were out of our league. After the end of the first period, they had out-shot us 20-1, we had barely made a scratch on the ice in their end and we were only down 1-0. We went into the dressing room elated about our performance, and even entertained the thought that we might be able to even the score and pull off the upset.

No such luck. They came out on fire in the second and easily upped the score to 5-0. We were definitely humbled heading out on the ice for the 3rd period, but we kept plugging away.

Then it happened.

I remember this moment like it was yesterday.

I jumped off the bench on the change and one of my defensemen spotted me cutting across the far blue-line. She put a laser pass right on my tape and the next thing I knew I was on a break-away against the Team USA goalie. I went in and used my one and only move (backhand to forehand back to backhand and top shelf).

I scored against Team USA!!! My coach says that it was one of the best goal celebrations she had ever seen. All I remember is having the goal light go off and then being surrounded by all of my teammates jumping up and down. It was the most amazing feeling ever – although it really did feel completely surreal.

That success story happened 10 years ago and I still remember every second of it like it was yesterday. That one goal gave me so much confidence going into the 2nd half of the season and I really felt like a changed player after that moment. It really was a major turning point in my career.

What is your success story that made a HUGE difference in your season or your career? It may have been a great goal, a great save, a great shot-block or one major victory against an arch rival…

Whatever it is, no matter how big or small, I’d love to hear it. Share yours in the comment box below.

~ Coach Kim