By Juliana Haskell
Special to the Reporter

Call them the girls of winter or razz them about never getting "too many men on the ice" penalties. Just don't make any figure skating jokes.

Dorchester Youth Hockey skates into new territory this season with the creation of its first-ever girls-only ice hockey team. Currently there are 12 girls on the team between the ages of nine and 12. The team will play other all-girls teams that are part of Division V in the Bay State Girls Hockey League, which represents almost all New England states.

"Girls hockey is expanding so much that I think girls should be able to play with girls" said Sean Folan, vice president of Dorchester Youth Hockey and assistant coach to the girls team.

The motivation behind starting the team was that at a certain age or level, physical changes take place and checking is allowed, and when this happens, most girls opt out of co-ed teams and turn to whatever all-girls teams are available, or drop the sport altogether.

Tim Murray, president of Dorchester Youth Hockey, realized the local organization was losing many of the girls to other programs and decided it was a good opportunity to begin an all-girls team. Girls who participate in Dorchester Youth Hockey still have the option of playing on co-ed teams and some girls in the league do that.

"We're basically in it right now for fun," said assistant coach Folan. He and head coach Paul Driscoll are also looking to teach the girls basic hockey skills. Some team members have been skating for several years while others are just beginning.

The girls' parents are also excited about the start of the new team. One mother, Linda Lombardi, expressed her concerns about checking in the game. Her 11-year-old daughter, Natalie, is just coming out of a pee-wee team and would've begun using checking on a mixed gender team. Hockey and football are the most physically rough professional team sports and collisions can be very dangerous and harmful. The girls league will not be using checking in their games.

Natalie Lombardi is a left-wing forward on the team. She began playing hockey at age seven and has played for the last four years with Dorchester Youth Hockey. Her inspiration to play came from her mother's friend Bernadette Henderson, who played on a team at night after work with other women.

"My mom's friend played and I watched her at the rink and knew I wanted to play hockey," said Natalie.

At the time she was enrolled in Boston Ballet. Natalie urged her mother to let her play hockey, but Linda wanted her daughter to stick with ballet. Finally she got a chance to skate. "The minute she got on the ice, I told my friend Bernadette, 'That's what she's gonna do,' Linda said.

Now the Lombardis have a picture of Natalie in a tutu next to a picture of her playing hockey displayed in their Minot Street home.

Natalie never minded playing with boys. She said it was fun and they treated her fairly. Many of the girls on the new team have been playing together for a while, and Natalie has friends on the team.

One of Dorchester's numerous big-name hockey alums, Stephanie O'Sullivan never had the an opportunity to play on a girls team when she was young, and was told that hockey wasn't a girls' sport. Growing up, she watched her five older brothers - one of whom, Chris, made it to the NHL - playing hockey at the rink and soon began playing herself.

All throughout high school she played on a boys team, and even became the team captain. "It was challenging with physical contact, but I developed a lot quicker from playing with the boys," she commented.

O'Sullivan found her way to the Providence College women's hockey for four years and then for the U.S. National Team from 1993-2001. Currently, she is director of the O'Sullivan Hockey Academy, where she and four brothers teach over 3,000 hockey players a year, both men and women of all ages.

The Dorchester girls team will play about 20 games minimum this season. Half will be away games and half will be at the home rink in Neponset. The first practice is scheduled for Friday at Devine Rink.