It’s been a dizzying 23 months of hockey success for Lee Stecklein (BSB ’17), the former Gopher All-American defenseman. In May 2024, Stecklein helped her Minnesota team to the first-ever championship in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). A year later, the Minnesota Frost repeated the feat, hoisting the Walter Cup trophy for a second straight year.
Then came the precious metal/medal gained in the recent Winter Olympics in Italy, when Stecklein’s Team USA upended archrival Canada 2-1 in overtime in the tense and thrilling gold medal game.
It was her second gold — coupled with a shootout victory over Canada in 2018 — to go along with two silver medals in four Olympic appearances. Stecklein also won three national championships with the Golden Gophers (in 2013, 2015 and 2016) and a state championship for Roseville High School for good measure.
The sheer volume of her on-ice success is incredible, but much of it was once unimaginable.
Different eras for girls and women’s hockey
Growing up in the “State of Hockey,” Stecklein never dreamed of playing professionally.
“Going to college and going to the Gophers was the dream. The Olympics was a dream, but it felt like a really faraway one,” she says. “And there just wasn’t much to imagine after that.”
In the years following her time with the Gophers, Stecklein played for a number of professional and semi-professional teams, including the Minnesota Whitecaps, but players weren’t able to make a living and the upstart leagues ultimately failed. When the PWHL found solid ground two years ago, professional careers for women in hockey finally took hold.
“I don’t think I ever pictured it being my full-time job like it is now,” she says. “So, it’s been really exciting to be a part of — to look back and see how far it’s come and how far it hopefully continues to go.”
The Frost share Grand Casino Arena with the Minnesota Wild for its home games. And while there hasn’t yet been a sellout, the crowds have been impressive and energetic.
“I’m so biased, but Minnesota is just the perfect place to be,” says Stecklein. “We had that support with the Gophers; we always had amazing crowds and amazing fans. … We feel very respected and valued by our state and that’s a very special experience.”
Stecklein is thrilled and humbled by the young girls at games holding signs and dreaming about playing in the PWHL. She’s noticed youth teams at tournaments wearing jerseys that replicate the league’s eight teams, whereas before they might have been imitating NHL teams.
“The first time I realized that, I had chills down my arms,” she says. “It’s something I didn’t picture happening. You want to inspire and you want to be there for the girls to look up to, but to see it at that concrete level, being something they can hold onto, I didn’t think of that part of it. That’s really fun.”
The long road to gender equity
The PWHL and women’s hockey have reached new levels of opportunity and popularity, but there’s still ground to gain.
“When we (the Minnesota Frost) get listed among the Lynx and the Wolves and the Wild, and spoken in that same sentence, I think that is a huge step,” she says. But visibility is really important, and she’d like to have even PWHL games on TV.
She would also like to see more equity in youth sports. It’s less of an issue in Minnesota, but she says sometimes girls struggle with having the same opportunities to sign up for youth hockey and to get ice time for practice and games, which can make participation more difficult and expensive.
Forward to her own future
Stecklein majored in entrepreneurial management and marketing at Minnesota Carlson. “It was a phenomenal program,” she says. “I learned so much and it felt really applicable … even though I haven’t immediately jumped into the [business] world.”
Her background has been helpful as she reads over contracts, she says, and it’s been a benefit in her role as vice president of the PWHL Players Association — the labor union for the league.
With the regular season concluding, the playoff-bound Frost will attempt to repeat as PWHL champions yet again. Stecklein has been adding offense to her trademark stellar defense. In a recent home game against New York, Stecklein scored the game’s first goal, and in the previous win against Vancouver she notched a career-high three assists.
Whether she participates in a fifth Winter Olympics in 2030 remains to be seen. With the steady growth of women’s hockey, there’s a new wave of young players waiting to take the international stage and possibly even Stecklein’s spot on Team USA.
Another generation of girls who have been wearing PWHL-themed jerseys is not too far behind. And Stecklein has helped inspire them.
The Frost will open their Walter Cup title defense in a best-of-five series against the Montreal Victoire, the PWHL regular season champs. The first game is May 2 at 1 p.m. in Montreal.
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