CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Brynn Toohey paced alongside the ice at the Simoni Skating Rink, playfully pushing a golf ball back and forth with her stick. “I want to score a bunch of goals,” she said.

From the time she could walk, Toohey, 29, had played hockey. Her grandmother used to steal traffic cones off the street so Toohey could do drills. But after college, she stepped away from the sport, trying to figure out who she was. She drank too much. Publicly, she still lived as a man .

“I was trying to drink it away,” Toohey said. “Oh yeah, I’ll just deal with this later.”

About a year ago, she decided she couldn’t live that way anymore. On New Year’s Eve, she came out for the first time as a transgender woman.

Two months ago, she picked up a hockey stick again, for the first time in seven years.

“If I didn’t have an outlet, the transition would be a little bit too much for me,” she said. “Now I’m dealing with it. I’m having fun. I’m finding my place in the world.”