Berlin’s Molly Jordan making a name on international hockey stage with Team USA

George Jordan built a small skating surface in his Berlin back yard for his son, Gavin. His daughter, Molly, was only about 3, but wanted her ice time, too.

“My son was two years older,” Jordan said. “And Molly would stand there at the back door all dressed up ready to go out. So my wife let her out and we had those knee-high hockey nets. I was working at one end with my son, and I turned around, and she was standing next to me. She had skated over to me without the net.”

That’s how early, how quickly Molly Jordan took to the ice. He growth has been steady and, this week, she is in Sweden playing on defense for Team USA in the IIHF under-18 women’s hockey championships.

“Once I got into it, I kind of became addicted to it, you just want to get better every day,” Molly, 17, said last week, before a skills practice at Newington Arena, where she has skated since she was old enough to leave her back yard, and a banner hangs honoring her achievements to date.

“Coming to the rink was always fun for me,” she said. “It wasn’t like, ‘I have to go to hockey practice,’ it was, ‘I get to go to hockey practice.’”

With fewer opportunities for girls her age, Jordan developed her skills playing with the boys on youth teams such as the Junior Falcons and the Connecticut Huskies in Enfield.

“Right away, all the boys were really accepting of me,” she said. “And it was awesome to play with them, because they pushed me really hard. My coach, Tommy O’Connor, he was a great guy and a great coach. He was really hard on me, but looking back, I think that’s what made me better, so I’m really thankful for him pushing me at that age. ... Just knowing I was the only girl in the league we played in, it was like, if I was able to keep up with the boys, then by the time was switched to girls hockey I would be at the top of the girls leagues.”

By the age of 14, Jordan moved to the Connecticut Polar Bears girls program. Then she played three years at Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, where she rose to All-New England Prep School Athletic Conference first team.

“Molly’s skating ability stands out and so she can play at the highest speed and make the game look easy,” Loomis Chaffee coach Liz Leyden said. “Molly also is a student of the game and constantly is looking to learn and be creative on the ice. Her willingness to try new skills has allowed her game to grow tremendously in the past four years.”

She’s now attending school in Rochester, N.Y., playing for Bishop Kearney Selects Academy, and will matriculate to Boston College.

“For my senior year, I switched to Select because their program is really focused on hockey,” Jordan said. “Our daily schedule there, we have morning practices at 6 a.m., then we go to school and we have practice after for two hours and then we lift. That’s where I wanted to keep my focus before college.”

Two summers ago, Jordan made USA Hockey’s under-16 and 17 camp, and quickly moved to U-18, the only player from Connecticut to make the squad. The 2022 world championships, canceled due to COVID, were rescheduled and played in Wisconsin last summer, where the team reached the Gold Medal game before losing to Canada. In October, Jordan and Team USA played in the national festival in Calgary.

Jordan learned in November that she had made the national team again and left for Ostersund, Sweden on Dec. 30. The tournament will be played there Jan. 8-15. Her older brother, Gavin, is now playing lacrosse at Nichols College. George Jordan, a software salesman, and his wife, Jennifer, who works for Capital Preparatory Schools in Bridgeport will travel to Sweden to watch Molly don the red, white and blue.

“I tear up almost every time I see her [with the Team USA uniform] on,” George Jordan said. “It’s unbelievable. She said the first time she saw the jerseys hanging up, the girls just started losing it.”

Among Molly Jordan’s role models are Megan Keller and Cayla Barnes, both Boston College alums who play defense for the senior U.S. team. She envisions herself as a quarterback at the blue line, using her speed as an offensive-minded defender, qualities she sees in them, though at 5-foot-7 Jordan is not quite as tall.

Her ultimate goal is to join them as Olympians. The 2026 Winter Games will be staged in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Interest and investment in women’s hockey is growing, but Jordan sees more progress to be made.

“It’s improving, but I feel like there is a long road ahead and a lot more to do to bring awareness,” she said. “The physical [nature of men’s hockey], they’re bigger, stronger, they’re allowed to hit and we’re not, and I think a lot of people use that as an excuse to say women’s hockey isn’t fun to watch. People need to shift that mindset and realize, yes, there is a difference but he skill levels are still pretty similar.”

Jordan, now, finds herself on new ice, at that in-between age in which she has role models and aspirations, but also serves as a role model for young girls who no longer want to stand at he back door, waiting for their ice time. One of her former teachers at Hubbard Elementary School in Berlin invited her to meet some of the students, one in particular.

“I got an email about a younger girl who plays boys hockey in the area,” Jordan said. “I was able to talk to this little girl who looked up to me so much. It was crazy how much she knew about me. I didn’t think at that age I would have someone looking up to me as a role model. That was the first time I realized it, and it was really cool.”

Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com