With the speed, physicality and immense skill that hockey demands, it feels like you need a kind of insane, superhuman fearlessness to even begin playing the sport.

Dominique Petrie has needed that larger-than-life bravery more than anybody, and fortunately for her, she’s always had it.

Petrie got into hockey at a young age because of her older brother, Guy, who eventually played collegiate-level ice hockey at Utah. Taking after her brother, young Dominique wanted to play hockey — but in Hermosa Beach, California, there were few opportunities for youth to play high-level hockey and even fewer for young girls.

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But she didn’t run. She didn’t give up on playing the sport or look elsewhere to a place that had better opportunities. She stayed in Southern California for her entire upbringing.

Even if that meant playing with the boys.

She played alongside boys almost exclusively throughout her youth career. Former Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks player Craig Johnson, who was one of Petrie’s coaches with the L.A. Junior Kings, was immediately impressed with Petrie’s work ethic.

Her hard-working nature likely made an impression on her teammates as well, as Petrie has stated that she never felt like an outcast even among the boys.

Johnson was also blown away by Petrie’s unwillingness to back down from any situation, even a fight on the ice. She was always the first player to defend her male teammates during physical altercations and never held back from throwing punches.

Fueled by that fearlessness, Petrie excelled amongst her male counterparts and received high-level opportunities as a result. She played for Team USA in high school, and she received a hockey scholarship to Harvard in 2018.

Life as a student-athlete at one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world didn’t phase Petrie one bit. She was the Crimson’s best offensive player in just her second season, leading the team with 1.25 points per game and 23 assists. Simultaneously, she was the president of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was named to the academic honor roll in 2020 — a true academic and athletic weapon.

She graduated from Harvard in 2022 with a degree in economics and a minor in psychology, but she wasn’t done crushing it in academics or hockey. After four seasons at Harvard, Petrie transferred to Clarkson University for one final season of hockey.

Unfortunately, she had to sit out the entire 2022-23 season due to injury, but everybody who knew Petrie knew that she would not slow her down when she returned to the ice.

And it did not. Petrie had a legendary 2023-24 season at Clarkson, helping the Golden Knights reach the Frozen Four with prolific offensive production. She tied for the team lead in goals with 15 and finished second in total points with 35.

She was also instrumentally clutch down the stretch for the Golden Knights. In the game that sent Clarkson to the Frozen Four, they found themselves locked into a quadruple overtime battle with powerhouse program Minnesota.

Yes, you read that correctly. Seven periods of hockey, with the last four locked in a 2-2 tie.

Who else could have broken the tie but steely-nerved Petrie, who sent a rebound into the back of the net to end the game with Clarkson on top 3-2 and send them to collegiate hockey’s biggest stage.

It was an incredible moment in front of a huge crowd, and one that will likely define her career.

Fortunately, even though her college years came to an end, that wouldn’t be the last iconic moment in Petrie’s hockey career. She was selected in the fifth round, 27th overall by Minnesota in the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft.

Post-draft analysis of the pick praised Petrie’s calmness with the puck under pressure, and that may be the most accurate description of her game out there.

Her tenacity and fearlessness should make her a young star in the PWHL, a new league that is soaring in popularity. It has recently set six all-time attendance records for women’s hockey and reaching millions of people across social media platforms.

But that should be expected, given that she was born and raised where the spotlight shines brightest and heroes are made.

Ethan Inman is a senior writing about Los Angeles’ unique hockey heroes in his column, “L.A. on Ice,” which runs every other Thursday.