VANCOUVER – Sarah Nurse has won Olympic gold. She’s long been a trailblazer for women’s hockey.

Yet Friday’s matchup was a special one for the Canadian star as she helped the Vancouver Goldeneyes to a 4-3 overtime win over the Seattle Torrent in their first-ever game.

“I’ve played a lot of hockey games — a lot of really big hockey games — and I’ve never felt the emotion and I’ve never felt emotional like I have in that first 20 minutes of the game,” Nurse said. “It felt like something different was in the air, like I’ve never experienced it.”

It’s been nearly seven months since Vancouver was awarded the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first expansion team. Seattle followed a week later.

Excitement over the new clubs has only grown since.

A sellout crowd of 14,958 packed Vancouver

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