Girl power: Abby Roque stars for Soo boys hockey

Sault Ste. Marie trailed Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett, 1-0, midway through the third period when the Soo’s Zach Hyvarinen went into the corner for the puck and fed teammate Abby Roque in front of the net.

As the puck neared Roque, Brendan Krause knew to set up at the other end of the net.

“I saw Abby going for the puck right next to the goalie and I knew right where she was going to give it to me,” Krause said. “I went straight to the back door and she gave me a perfect pass.”

When the puck got to Roque, she blindly passed the puck behind her back to Krause. It was as if the senior center had eyes in the back of her head, because she never looked in Krause’s direction before she made the pass.

“I knew he was there,” she said. “I didn’t look, but I knew he was there.”

The least surprised person on the ice was Krause, who is accustomed to her no-look passes.

“She’s always making plays that that,” he said. “She’s unbelievable. When you’re out there, she knows. She’s always going to make a good play to you.”

Krause took the puck and slammed it into the net to tie the game, sparking the Blue Devils to a 2-1 victory in the MIHL Prep Hockey Showcase in Trenton.

Roque is one of about 15 girls across the state who play on boys hockey teams, but she is in a class of her own when it comes to the sport. For the last two years she competed on USA Hockey’s U-18 women’s national team and in the fall she will be a freshman on the Wisconsin women’s hockey team.

But right now Roque, a 4.11 student, is playing for her high school team, which is no big deal to her or her teammates.

“All of these guys are my best friends,” she said. “They stick up for me if anybody is giving me crap on the ice. There’s no problem other than trying to find a locker room.”

Roque has her own locker room at Sault Ste. Marie, but finding something available on the road can be problematic. It is a small price to pay for being able to play the game she has grown to love since she first laced on skates as a 4-year-old.

“I just love being on skates,” she said. “I feel more comfortable on skates than I do in shoes. I love the speed of the game, the physicality. I just love the game.”

Roque is the daughter of Jim Roque, former head coach at Lake Superior State and current scout for the Arizona Coyotes. She grew up attending his practices at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., and at Lake State and gravitated to the game naturally.

“She’d come and hang out,” said her father. “Over the years she was hanging around the rink and watched the guys. She’d come after school and want to skate or go shoot pucks. She’s always been around that environment.”

As a 6-year-old, Roque played on her first team — a boys team because there was no alternative for girls.

As she grew and gained experience, her skills became apparent.

“She has really good hands,” said her father. “She’s got a really good brain for the game. She understands it, she gets it. Playing with the boys has really helped her because it’s forced her to play quicker and protect the puck.”

Roque grew up as one of the best players on every team she played on.

As a freshman, she was the school’s only freshman to make the varsity. That team had only two sophomores so all of a sudden she was playing with a bunch of guys she didn’t know, which could have made her uneasy.

“My freshman year a lot of the kids were older, I hadn’t met them yet because I was the youngest kid on the team at that point,” she said. “They really just brought me in. It’s kind of a family, the hockey team.”

Roque is the first girl Sault Ste. Marie coach John Ferroni has coached, and having her on the team has been one of the best experiences of his coaching career.

“She’s a joy,” Ferroni said. “It’s been a wonderful ride with her. She’s always smiling. She lives life through the ice.”

That comes shining through when you watch her play.

At 5-feet-6, she is one of the smallest players on the ice, but she is solid and takes checks without a problem. Roque is at her best when the puck is on her stick and she is looking for open teammates.

A second-team all-stater last season, Roque did score five goals in a victory over Canton early this season, but she is more of a passer, earning 19 assists to go with her 11 goals for the Blue Devils (15-6-1) heading into Thursday night’s game.

“The best thing she does on the ice is her ability to know where she’s at,” said Ferroni. “Offensively when she has the puck and she’s looking to make a play, she’s elusive with it. If you need the puck on somebody’s stick at the end of the game, I don’t mind at all if it’s on Abby’s stick.”

Playing with the boys helped Roque when she stepped onto the national stage with USA Hockey. There are differences in the styles of play, but her experiences with the boys easily translates to the girls game.

“In guys, you can really play the body, you want to hit people,” she explained. “In girls, you can rub them off the puck, but you can’t try to hit them as much. In girls it’s a lot less physical, but me being used to the physical game it’s a lot easier for me to body people off the puck in girls hockey.”

Roque’s role as a playmaker with the Blue Devils comes in handy while playing with Team USA.

“In guys, you’ve got to move the puck faster because someone is coming to hit you,” she said. “In girls, a lot of girls try to hold the puck so when I go over to girls hockey I’m very good at moving the puck at that level.”

She is pretty good at the high school level, too, and isn’t afraid to go into the corners and mix it up with the guys. And when things get chippy, she gets chippy.

“She gets herself in trouble sometimes,” said Nick LaCross. “She’s got a little hot head. She likes to talk a little bit, push around if she gets pushed. She don’t take nothing. Sometimes there’s more than one guy on her so we have to step in a little bit.”

As a member of the U-18 national team, Roque participated in two International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships, helping USA Hockey win the silver medal in 2014 in Budapest and the gold medal in 2015 in Buffalo.

“Winning a gold medal at the worlds was probably the best moment of my life with all of the fans there,” she said. “Representing your country is amazing. You come back and make a state finals run is really something special.”

That is what Roque is focused on now. As a freshman and sophomore, she helped the Blue Devils reach the Division 3 championship game and finished runner-up both times.

This season, she would like to win one more game.

“It’s been our goal all year,” she said. “It’s the only thing I’m shooting for this year, just to make it to that state championship and hopefully win.”

Contact Mick McCabe: 313-223-4744 or mmccabe@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1.