Nina Thorson Credit: Charles Hallman

Nina Thorson is in her first season as a women’s college hockey player. She got off to an impressive start with five goals and two assists in her first five games of her collegiate career, helping Hamline to a top-10 ranking in the country.

Thorson, a Duluth Marshall High School graduate in action last Saturday against St. Scholastica, had an unassisted goal in the Pipers’ 4-2 victory at downtown St. Paul’s TRIA Rink, the school’s home ice.

“I got set up pretty nice for a shot and I put it in the net,” she said afterwards. “I think I did pretty well.” The 5’3” forward finished with three shots on goal, and had a perfect faceoff percentage (4-for-4). 

Thorson perhaps had her best game as a collegiate with two power play goals in a 5-0 victory at Saint Mary’s in Winona Nov. 15. Thus far, the freshman has six goals and two assists, and 25 shots on goal (.240) for eight points as Hamline (8-1-0; 5-1-0 MIAC).

The college player admitted that she’s a longtime skater, thanks to her parents. “I was put there when I was like two years old,” said Thorson. “My parents were like, ‘You are going to go skate.’ So, I’ve been skating for a long time. I love it.”

Thorson also played soccer and lacrosse.  

“Overall, I played the other two sports just because my dad coached soccer at the high school. We had a new lacrosse team program started, so I decided to join. Having hockey and soccer as a background definitely helped in my speed and agility, and stick work overall” to play lacrosse, she pointed out.

Thorson’s high school hockey stats include 111 goals and 100 assists. She also played for the North Shore Storm, a youth hockey cooperative between Silver Bay and Two Harbors.

The Hamline first-year forward pointed out that making new friends has been the most rewarding part of her playing hockey. Her quickness is one of her best attributes, she added.

“I think definitely speed — I feel that I have a pretty good hockey IQ as well,” said Thorson.  “I use my speed a lot and that really helps me.”

“Yes,” she acknowledged matter-of-factly as HU’s only woman of color and possibly the only Black female playing this season in the MIAC. “Obviously this is a predominately white sport, and I grew up in a very predominately white area. But I do think that over the years, it will begin to grow more and we’ll see more people [of color] out there,” Thorson stressed.

The Duluth native chose Hamline to attend college: “I definitely wanted to stay close to home,” said Thorson. “But it was really the team that drew me into the school.

“It definitely has been a lot different from high school,” Thorson said of her first collegiate season thus far. “It’s been an easier transition than I thought. We have a great coaching staff. Just getting to know for the most part the [college] game, and the other girls have helped me in my transition. They have been really helpful.”

Her current plans are to study sports management and marketing. “I love talking with people and interacting with sports,” Thorton said, adding that she wouldn’t mind working in some capacity in the PWHL one day “to make the sport better,” she said.

Finally…

St. Thomas last week held its first Field Trip Day game at Lee & Peggy Anderson Arena as the Tommies’ women’s basketball team defeated Northern Arizona 74-66 Dec. 3 in front of 500 students from St. Paul’s Maxfield Elementary School. 

“To have our young women be able to be role models was a wonderful experience,” said UST Coach Ruth Sinn afterwards, who added that the teachers told her beforehand that many youngsters were attending their first-ever basketball game.  

“My hope and my plan” is to hold an annual youth game such as last week’s, Sinn pointed out.

Charles Hallman welcomes reader comments to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.

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