When Caitlin Heale taught her girl’s hockey teammates the haka, she didn’t think too much of it. “It was just a thing that I taught that’s from my culture when we went to training camp,” she said. Last summer, Heale choreographed the tribal war dance, famously performed by the national rugby team in her home country, New Zealand. She shared it with her teammates from the Toronto-Leaside Junior Wildcats. The haka is meant to intimidate an opponent. Heale was quite surprised, however, when her Canadian teammates took it as seriously as she did.

China won 6–1 in a friendly hockey game against the Leaside Wildcats at the Scarborough Centennial Arena on Dec. 7.