B.C. players surge onto Canadian women’s hockey team after drought [Video]

Women’s hockey in British Columbia is having a long-awaited moment.

Three players from the province on Canada’s world championship roster is the most ever. It was initially four until Hannah Miller ran afoul of international transfer rules.

“It’s been a long time coming to get a few more players on this team,” said defender Micah Zandee-Hart of Saanichton, B.C.

Jennifer Gardiner of Surrey, Chloe Primerano and Miller of North Vancouver and Zandee-Hart represented a veritable B.C. explosion when Canada’s 25 players were announced in March.

There wasn’t a B.C. player on the women’s team for almost two decades after goaltender Danielle Dube in the 1997 world championship.

The province hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2014 Four Nations and the 2016 world championship without a homegrown player in those tournaments.

Two games into this year’s world championship, Gardiner has two goals and an assist, Zandee-Hart scored her first international goal …