LOWELL — The Boston Fleet will be honoring its seven players heading to Italy next week for the Milano Cortina Olympics at its game tonight, including one of its defenders who is ready to vie at the chance to bring home her country’s first medal in women’s hockey.
The Fleet, of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, have seven players who will head to Italy next week for the Milano Cortina Olympics.
Those players will be honored at its Wednesday game against the New York Sirens during an “Olympic Send-Off” with puck drop at 7 p.m. at the Tsongas Center.
A pregame ceremony will also honor members of the gold-medal winning 1998 U.S. Women’s Olympic Ice Hockey Team.
It’s the last game before the PWHL’s Olympic break. The women’s tournament is set to run from Feb. 5 to Feb. 19.
These Olympics will be the chance for some of the players to represent their countries for the second or third time while others will make their debuts on the Olympic stage.
For Fleet defender Daniela Pejsova, 23, it’s not lost on her that she will compete in her second Winter Olympics to represent her country of Czechia. She represented Czechia in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“Every time I put the jersey on, it’s just a special feeling,” Pejsova said. “I love my country and the people there.”
The Teplice, Czechia native was named best defender for Team Czechia in 2022 and helped her national team to two bronze medals in IIHF Women’s World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
A 2024 draft pick for the Fleet, she has one goal in 11 games so far this season with the Fleet and four points overall through two seasons with the team. She has helped make Boston’s blue line one of the hardest to play against in the PWHL.
Thirty percent of the league will be in this year’s Olympics 61 PWHL players helping to round out eight countries’ rosters.
“This is the best league in the world, and it’s loaded with the best players on the Earth,” she said. “It really shows the quality of the league and how it works.”
Besides Pejsova, seven other PWHL players will represent Team Czechia in hopes of getting on the Olympic podium for the first time.
Even though they play against each other during the season, the Czechia players share a special bond that’s grown from their time together on the national team.
“When we see each other at games, it’s always nice to talk, check in, and hang out with the girls because we are very close as a national team,” Pejsova said. “Most of us have been on it for many years now, so we know each other very well.”
Pejosva said while the national team has had some downs in recent years, there have been a lot of ups and experienced players to make it one to watch out for these Olympics and not be written off.
“We are still building and I hope the team is ready for this next tournament,” she said.
Pejsova expects this women’s tournament to be a different experience than the Beijing Olympics four years ago. COVID-19 restrictions and testing were still in place in 2022 for the Olympic athletes.
It also helps these games are closer to home and will bring some of the comforts that go along with that proximity.
“There were a lot of limits and a lot of testing,” she said. “Just the atmosphere this time around and it being in Europe, it’s close to my home and my family will be able to watch some of my games in person. That’s going to be a special feeling.”
She said her family is excited to be there and watch the other competitions. Pejsova joked about her family being laid back about figuring out flights and where they will stay.
“I am the one who is stressing for them, but they’re super excited to be there and support me,” she said.
While a medal is on her mind, Italian food and the host country’s fashion round out the trifecta for her.
“My friends would say that this is the perfect country for me to visit because I love fashion and Milano is very known for fashion,” she said. “I love Italian food. My favorite dessert is tiramisu, so it’s going to be perfect, and I just can’t wait.”
Team Czechia will meet Team U.S.A. in the preliminary round. She’ll face off against fellow Fleet teammates, goaltender Aerin Frankel and defenders Haley Winn and Megan Keller. Other teammates headed to the Olympics are Alina Muller (Switzerland), Susanna Tapani (Finland) and Laura Kluge (Germany).
Although they will all be wearing different jerseys in a week’s time, she relishes in sharing, and celebrating, the experience with them.
“I’m still cheering for them and so happy they made it there, but when we step on the ice against each other, it will be different,” she said.