Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Krissy Wendell-Pohl, Natalie Darwitz made a mark as players and beyond

Article content

Postmedia is running profiles this week of the 2024 Hockey Hall of Fame induction class. Today, Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl

Call them the guiding north stars of women’s hockey.

Natalie Darwitz and Krissy Wendell-Pohl have inspired many in their home state of Minnesota and, by extension, the United States and the international female hockey landscape.

Now both are part of a larger constellation of several contemporaries and the game’s all-time best in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

When the Golden Gopher teammates make their speeches on Monday night, they’ll be the first joint induction of females since 2010 (Canada’s Angela James and American Cammi Granato) and the first two U.S.-born of their gender to enter the Hall together.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

“The past few months (since the June announcement) have been a whirlwind for me,” Wendell-Pohl told the Sun on Tuesday morning. “Not many can say they’re going in the Hall with a teammate.

The two started out on boys’ teams and now have seen the dawn of the first viable league for the top females in the worls, the soon-to-be-expanding PWHL.

Both broke ground after their playing days, Wedell-Pohl in her current role as an amateur scout in the talent-rich midwest U.S. for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Darwitz as general manager of Minnesota’s PWHL team that beat Boston in the league’s inaugural Walter Cup final last spring.

“It’s our hope doors will continue to open,” Wendell-Pohl said. “What’s happened is a testament to what’s possible.”

She joked the shared experience with Darwitz has been like a reunion of two sisters, while Wendell-Pohl and husband John, the former NHler, have three girls in their early teens playing.

“I got emotional when I found out that Natalie was also being inducted because our lives have been pretty tight since we joined the U.S. team together, played at the University of Minnesota together and she went on to another Olympics.”

“It’s crazy to think of how far the game has come in such a short amount of time.”

“Hopefully this is a regular occurrence from here on out,” Darwitz said of seeing multiple female inductions annually. “In 2024, there’s so many players of our generation and past generations that have paved the way to get women’s hockey where it is today, so hopefully we’re the starting line of that happening every single year.”

Darwitz took to the ice at age five, like most boys and girls in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and by high school and college was a dominant forward.

In the University of Minnesota’s back-to-back championships, she had an overtime goal in her final game.

She spent 10 years on the U.S., national team, leading the 2002 Olympics in goals with a game-winning assist to get a bronze medal in 2006.

She also was part of three women’s world championships before turning to coaching high school and the Gophers.

She’s looking to her next career chapter after a falling out with her PWHL team saw her let go.

Twenty-three miles west from Darwitz’s beginnings in St. Paul, Wendell-Pohl was in Brooklyn Park following a similar path — co-ed hockey, a high school star and on to the University of Minnesota.

She had a key role on an American team that met Canada in a slew of title showdowns at the world championships and Olympics, captain of their first gold-medal team at the ‘05 worlds.

She began a strong NHL connection through husband John, a St. Louis Blues draft pick who played 114 games for Toronto in the early 2000s.

Following his minor league and European journeys, Krissy had plenty of game time to develop her scouting sense, especially in games he was scratched, watching his teammate and opponents to chart strengths and weaknesses.

“She’d tell me this guy or that guy should be in the NHL,” John told the Sun. “I’d say ‘really?’ and then she’d be proven right.

One player she tagged for stardom while John played in Sweden was his fluid teenage teammate in Frolunda, defenceman Erik Karlsson, then unknown in North America.

“She called it with Karlsson and now he’s (won Norris Trophies). She would be a huge asset to any team.”

NATALIE DARWITZ

Born: Oct. 13, 1983, St. Paul, Minn.

Position: Forward

BY THE NUMBERS: Fifty international games played, 39-33-72 points … NCAA (University of Minnesota), 99 GP, 102-104-206 points.

HALL CALL: As a player, won three world championship gold medals, two Olympic silvers. Coached Lakewood South High School, Hamline University and was assistant at University of Minnesota. Was GM of Minnesota’s PWHL team that won inaugural Walter Cup in 2024. Also inducted in the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame.

DID YOU KNOW: Only a seventh-grader, Darwitz was allowed to play high school hockey in her hometown of Eagan, Minn., and her prep career totalled 487 points in 102 games.

KRISSY WENDELL-POHL

POSITION: Forward

Born: Sept, 12, 1981, Brooklyn Park, Minn.

BY THE NUMBERS: In two seasons of high school hockey at Park Center, Minn., she had 219 goals …  In her University of Minnesota final season, 43 goals, 61 assists … Internationally, 147 goals in 106 games for Team USA … In the 2005 world championships, four goals, five assists and a shootout goal in the gold medal match.

HALL CALL: Won 2005 Patty Kazmaier Award as the top female player in U.S. college hockey, the year the U.S. won its first gold at the women’s world championships. Won silver  at the ‘02 Olympics. bronze in ‘06 as team captain. At one time held single-season and career record for most short-handed goals in NCAA history …Currently an amateur scout for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

DID YOU KNOW: She was the fifth female to play in the Little Legue World Series, the first as catcher.

lhornby@postmedia.com

X: @sunhornby