ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — Everything is new and foreign — the food, language, geography and many of her teammates — for Nela Lopusanova after packing her hockey gear and leaving behind her family to make the 15-hour, 4,300-mile trek from Zilina, Slovakia, to upstate New York. Wearing a Blackhawks T-shirt, the 15-year-old’s eyes lit up and she said, “That’s cool,” when informed Buffalo — where her idol, former Chicago star Patrick Kane grew up — is an hour's drive away. And while she might be much closer now to Michigan, the only “Michigan” Lopusanova is familiar with is the slick, raise-the-puck-on-the-blade and loft it lacrosse-style into the net.
Slovakian teenage girls' hockey phenom Nela Lopusanova arrives in North America