Ronda Curtin Engelhardt, co-head coach of the Minnesota Whitecaps, was a player on the first team of skaters back in 2004 when the other head coach and general manager, Jack Brodt, helped found the women’s hockey team.

“It’s hard to put into words how special it is,” said Engelhardt, a Roseville native who played hockey at the University of Minnesota from 1999-2003. “I remember before it was even a team just having a conversation about starting the team from scratch.”

The Whitecaps, Minnesota’s newest professional sports team, are in their first season with the National Women’s Hockey League. After playing 13 years of semi-pro, Dani Rylan, the founder of the NWHL acquired the team in June. Four other teams are in the league: the Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and Metropolitan Riveters out of New Jersey.

The Whitecaps swept the season’s first weekend series at Tria Rink in St. Paul against the Riveters on Oct. 6-7, outscoring the defending NWHL champions 7-1 in the two-game series.

After a two-week break, the Whitecaps hit the ice again this weekend in a rematch on the road against the Riveters. The first of two games will be at the New Jersey Devils’ home arena, the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Saturday.

“It was great to kind of get our feet wet in the NWHL in our first two games,” said Whitecaps forward Hannah Brandt, a former Gophers star from Vadnais Heights who helped lead the U.S. to an Olympic gold medal last winter. “Cut maybe some nerves for some people, but it was a lot of fun, and yeah, obviously it went well for us, a great weekend.”

Brandt, defenseman Lee Stecklein and forward Kate Schipper lead the team after two games with four points each. The trio played together at the University of Minnesota, and Brandt and Stecklein won gold together at the 2018 Olympics. Kendall Coyne Schofield, a forward on the roster, was also on the 2018 Olympic team.

The Whitecaps’ roster features six former Gophers, five players from St. Cloud State, two from Minnesota Duluth and one each from Bemidji State and Minnesota State Mankato. Nineteen of the 25 Whitecaps players are from Minnesota.

“I think that definitely gives us an advantage,” Brandt said of the team’s chemistry having played alongside and against each other growing up. “I don’t think any other team could probably say the same thing, so definitely an advantage for the off-ice chemistry we have, and hopefully it translates on ice as well.”

Before joining the NWHL, the Whitecaps played college hockey teams and teams like Shattuck-St. Mary’s. They started this season with two games against college hockey opponents.

“It think it definitely was cool for them. I mean, now they have one more thing that they can work towards,” said Kalli Funk, a Roseville native who played college hockey at Niagara and St. Cloud State. “Especially those players from Minnesota, they can work now to play in the NWHL, and for a team from Minnesota.”

A topic of debate for the NWHL recently has been joining, merging with or playing against the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), a six-team league that serves as the only other professional women’s hockey league in North America.

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The Loop NFL Picks: Week 3 Rylan said this week that one combined league was “inevitable,” and he has had talks with CWHL commissioner Jayna Hefford, according to the Boston Herald.

“I think that’s kind of where we’re headed, and it’s a necessary step in my opinion towards growing the game even more,” Brandt said. “There’s a lot of great players in the Canadian league, and there’s a lot of great players in the American league, but we kind of need to get everyone together and have each other face off against each other just for the best results on the ice for the fans and for the players on the ice.”

MINNESOTA WHITECAPS VS. METROPOLITAN RIVETERS