Every week, the New York City Pride Hockey Alliance meets on the ice to play the sport they love.

On this particular Sunday, there’s an extra buzz around the rink. Players from all across the country — and Canada — face off at Chelsea Piers for the 24th annual Chelsea Challenge.

The LGBTQ+ hockey tournament is hosted by the alliance, or the NYCPHA. Steven Greenberg is the president.

“The organization started now 26 years ago, when Jeff Kagan went to a tournament in Canada and went to his first LGBTQ tournament and decided to bring the idea back to New York City. So it started off quite small — I couldn’t tell you how many teams to start with, maybe it was just one,” Greenberg said.

Today, it’s grown to six teams, where everyone — and every skill level — is welcome.

“No, I would never even call myself an athlete at this point,” Greenberg laughed.

“I actually started getting into hockey at the 2017-2018 season. It was very enticing for me to learn all these new teams, all this history, all the different players, all the different aspects of hockey. It was a brand new rabbit hole that I just sunk myself into, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since,” Jakob Sosa, a member of the NYCPHA, said.

“I started playing hockey in high school for one season and then I took 17 years off, and then the 2022 winter Olympics happened and I watched the women’s hockey tournament at the Olympics and I said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s really fun, I forgot how fun that is, I can do that,’” Abby Miller, another member of the NYCPHA, told NY1.

“I’d been watching hockey in lockdown with some friends and just really found myself amazed by the body movements and thought I have to try that myself and so I learned to skate, I took some classes and then I was able to join the Pride Hockey Alliance and start playing, and it’s been about four and a half years, it’s kind of changed my life,” added NYCPHA member Nozlee Samadzadeh.

But others, like Cleo Kromelow, grew up in the sport.

“I played on the Central Park Lady Hawks pretty much my whole life. I really owe it to hockey that I feel like I can be a strong woman — it’s taught me how to command a room, be a leader, stand up for myself; I owe so much to the game,” she said.

Kromelow said hockey was her whole world, but she never quite felt she could be her whole self on skates.

“My whole life playing hockey, I have felt like the only queer person on teams and it didn’t feel like a part of myself that I was really like loud about because, like, just kind of wanted to fly under the radar and fit in,” she added.

She and so many others said they felt “iced out.”

“Hockey, as well as a lot of sports, have a homophobic culture, and it’s hard for folks to find a safe place to play and be themselves,” Greenberg said.

“There’s a lot of baggage that can come with playing team sports. To come walk in, ‘Which locker room am I supposed to use? What’s happening? Which team style am I supposed to play on?’ For there to be a group that just says, ‘Hey, if you can play, you can play. If you’re willing to sort of self-select into this group or coexist with us, then you can play with us,’” Miller added.

That freedom — that “come as you are” environment — has allowed them all to grow as players and people.

“I truly think I could be myself when I’m here, I could really be proud of my sexuality, I could be proud being around the people that I like to call friends,” Sosa said.

“It’s fun, it’s safe, it’s silly, it’s emotional, it’s just great,” Samadzadeh added.

And yes, they’ve all watched “Heated Rivalry.” In fact, since it came out, Greenberg said there’s been an exponential increase in people who want in on the league.

“It’s really exciting for me to see the hockey world changing. Before ‘Heated Rivalry’ and before joining the PHA, I kind of felt like queerness and hockey were totally separate parts of my life that were both really important to me, but to see ‘Heated Rivalry’ and to see that come together, it makes me really excited for what might come in the hockey world,” Kromelow said. “I think we’re still waiting for someone in the NHL to come out, and I will be really excited when that happens, because I’m sure that there’s queer folks there.”

But here, on this ice, there’s already plenty to celebrate.

“To be able to play in an organization with queer players where you know gay is not an insult, I feel like here gay means strong and powerful and you know it makes me feel like I can really be a leader,” Kromelow added.

“It doesn’t matter what race, what gender, what age, what experience you have, this is a community of people that brings one another together all for the love of hockey,” Sosa said.

“Sometimes people ask me, why do I keep doing this? It’s a lot of work being president and I have lots of examples of people who said: ’I was contemplating suicide, and if it wasn’t for this organization, I don’t think I’d be alive.’ And it’s stories like that that keep me going and keep doing what I’m doing,” Greenberg said.