-As Lough explained, Las Vegas's new Professional Women's Hockey League Team will have an opportunity to build both a local fan base and the sport itself.

One Southern Nevada program has already spent years building the girls' hockey community.

Maria Silva shows us how the program is helping girls develop their skills and find their place on the ice.

(Maria Silva) Inside the Las Vegas Ice Center, you will find these young players honing their hockey skills, all part of the Girls Learn to Play program.

(female coach) Who's five years old here?

Who's five years old?

-The beginner-friendly all-girls hockey program... -Good job, good job.

Let's go.

Come on, come on.

You can do it!

-...empowering young girls to hit the ice.

-Awesome.

I'm glad you learned how to get up.

That was good.

-According to organizers, one of the biggest barriers to growing girls hockey is that there are few programs specifically for girls.

In most entry-level programs, girls compete with boys--most dropping out due to the physical and social challenges of being the only girl on the team, and most giving up on hockey before they make it to an all-girls team.

(male coach) Ready and go.

-Equipment costs present an additional barrier.

To counter this, the Girls Learn to Play program provides all necessary equipment rentals in its one-time $100 fee.

-Good.

Outside edge.

Ready, set, go!

-The program also helps these young players develop the hockey skills necessary to succeed at the next level and advance to the Las Vegas Storm Girls program.

(Luciana Severino) I play goalie, and our normal position is knees bent, hands out, stick on the ground.

- 10-year-old goalie Luciana Severino started in the Girls Learn to Play program when she was just five years old.

-They taught me how to skate, stop, skate backwards, to how to do turns and, like, how the stick handles, shoot pucks.

Um, I love being the goalie because they count on you, and they-- and if you save a shot, they're always like, Good job!

Good job!

You saved an awesome shot!

-The awesome shot-saving goalie is part of the 10U Storm Girls travel team.

(Jennifer Severino) I think a lot of parents like me probably had the misconception that, like, oh, it's a boys' sport.

And I'll admit that I first thought that originally, and I was a little nervous about getting her involved in it.

She loves the challenge.

She loves the excitement.

She loves the team environment.

And I would give hockey a chance even if you're not a hockey family.

-Another win for these talented young athletes in training: the seasoned coaching team.

(male coach) All right!

-We're very lucky that we have Brittney Brooks here--having a female lead who played hockey herself, who understands what it takes--and to see the growth in women's hockey that wasn't available when Brittney played.

And now we're going to have a PWHL team here.

That's huge.

So the girls are really excited.

[shouting] -Yep.

Luciana is really excited about our PWHL Las Vegas team and has already set her goal when it comes to her hockey career.

-If I keep doing hockey, I can go up there and be at that level and do it with them.

-Learn to play on 3.

(in unison) 1-2-3, Go!

-What a wonderful program.

Now, the next session of Girls Learn to Play kicks off August 15th, so there is still time to sign up.

And, Amber, I can tell you that watching these young athletes out on the ice, I think I got the hockey bug.

And lucky for me, there are also adult Learn to Play classes.

So sign me up.

Wish me luck.

Back to you in the studio.