THUNDER BAY – It was an evening that Michela Cava won't soon forget.
After joining members of the Thunder Bay Queens on the ice for a practice at the Port Arthur Arena on Wednesday, the forward for the Minnesota Frost brought the players over to Port Arthur Stadium to sign autographs and have them take a look at the Professional Women's Hockey League's Walter Cup.
"It's been an awesome and great experience for me," Cava said. "To be able to bring the cup back for the young girls here one to bring it back to where I grew up playing and where I learned from all the great coaches along the way has been pretty humbling.
"I didn't expect all the hype that it brought though. It was pretty cool to see the way the girls reacted when I had the trophy and I was walking with it down the hallway and bringing it into the dressing rooms to take photos with them."
Cava lifted the trophy on May 29 after her team defeated the Boston Fleet in the fifth and deciding game of the league's first championship series.
She and her teammates have had their official day with the Walter Cup over the last few weeks.
"I had my dad (George) there with me when we won but it's so cool to be able to bring it back here to celebrate with everybody else and to show the kids here what they can look forward to," Cava said.
"For me, to see where hockey has grown from when I was younger and to see all the young girls at the rink is just so exciting, especially as they now have this opportunity to play in the PWHL when they grow up."
Cava's second season in Minnesota is just around the corner. The team starts training camp in Toronto on Nov. 19 and opens their regular season on Dec. 1
"For the most part, we have the same core on our team," Cava said. "There's a few new additions but we got a good group coming back and we should hopefully have a pretty good team that will be able to go all the way again."
Minnesota also has a new name for their second campaign, as do the other five teams in the league.
They are keeping their purple and black colour scheme but will now go by the Frost, which the PWHL said comes from the state's 'deep-rooted love for the ice.'
"That's what the fans wanted," Cava said. "It'll be good for everybody that's in the stands to be able to cheer a team name instead of it just being Minnesota."