This past Saturday, the United States Women's National Hockey team played against their heated rivals, Team Canada, in Plymouth, Michigan.

This marks the first time in quite a long time, if not the first time ever, that the girls in red, white and blue played a game in my home state of Michigan.

The game this weekend was so much more than just another game, it signified so many things and finally girls in Michigan got to see their heroes play live and in person.

To give you some history, women's hockey was not an International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship event until 1990. It was not an Olympic sport until the 1998 Nagano Winter games. The NCAA did not have a national championship for it until 2001 despite many colleges such as Brown and Cornell forming teams in the 60's and 70's.

The generation of girls that played in the inaugural IIHF World Championship and the first Olympic games was the first generation of girls to be affected by Title IX. Women like Hockey Hall of Famers Angela Ruggiero and Cammi Granato played youth hockey with boys and were cut from teams and targeted because of the ponytail hanging down the back of their jersey but they fought on anyways and became the first female hockey players to wear gold medals around their necks almost 20 years ago.

Flash forward to the trailblazers of this day and age and you have players like Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker, Amanda Kessel, Alex Carpenter and many, many more who are fighting for the game in brand new ways.

These girls grew up looking up to Granato and Ruggiero, despite the fact that they only played once a year and only played on TV every four years in the Olympics. Many of them grew up playing boys hockey because there weren't enough girls to form teams and then went on to play for NCAA DI programs that are mainly out on the East Coast and spread throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Prior to 2015, these women played in college and sat out the season that the Olympics fell during and after they graduated, the only time they would be on the ice as a team would be during the World Championships or Four Nations Tournament. Girls couldn't see their heroes playing unless it was online or in the middle of the night because of the time difference between the US and Europe where many tournaments are located. Every four years you would get to see your heroes play on TV during the Olympics and that was it.

Then came the NWHL. The NWHL was founded in 2015 and began play in the 15-16 season, becoming the first league in North America where players were actually played to play hockey, but the highest paid player that first season was only paid $25,000. Now, you could go on YouTube and see your favorite players play every weekend, but still the league is all on the East Coast.

For girls like me in Michigan, the only way to be a fan and support your favorite players was to like them on Facebook and follow them on Instagram or buy their t-shirts or jerseys from the NWHL store because there's no NWHL in Michigan, there's no NCAA D1 program in Michigan either despite having five different Men's NCAA D1 programs.

But Saturday, our heroes were here in our home state, representing our country in a fast paced, action packed game in front of 3,000 fans.

In the stands were 8-year-old girls all the way up to girls like me who are 18 and 19. We grew up watching and looking up to Hiliary Knight, Megan Duggan, Gigi Marvin, Kelli Stack, Megan Bozek.

The little girls with their flags waving all game won't have to worry about finding teams to play on like many girls my age did. They won't be forced to quit playing because there are only 20 girls in the state playing in their birth year. All because of the girls in red, white and blue who played in front of us for the first time this weekend.

Hilary Knight is considered one of the best, if not the best, female hockey player in the world. She wears #21 because of Hockey Hall of Famer Cami Granato who captained the US to the first ever Olympic Gold in 1998. Granato wore #21 because of Mike Eruzione who scored the game-winning goal in the semi final game of the 1980 Olympic games. Now, the little girls playing cross ice games during the intermission this past Saturday are wearing #21 because of Hilary Knight.

For the first time, we were seeing our heroes live and in person.

And it was way cooler than many really knew.

Because of the "newness" of the NWHL, we got to watch Brianna Decker, the first NWHLer to grab a hat trick and the first league MVP. We got to watch Hilary Knight, who took home the league's first scoring title. We got to watch Kelli Stack, the first female player to be paid $25,000. We got to watch the highest paid NWHL player in history, Amanda Kessel. We even got to watch the first ever NWHL Draft Pick, Alex Carpenter, who scored the overtime goal to win the 2016 World Championship.

We were watching girls that made history the year before.

Unfortunately, Team Canada took home the W, but that did not make the experience any less great.

Fans could stick around and get autographs from Kacey Bellamy of the Boston Pride, Anne Schlepler of the Buffalo Beauts, Alex Carpenter of the Boston Pride, Emily Pfalzer of the Buffalo Beauts, Amanda Kessel of the New York Riveters, Megan Bozek of the Buffalo Beauts, national champion Lee Stecklein of the Minnesota Gophers and a hometown girl, Megan Keller of the Boston College Eagles. Players were coming out from the locker room to come see their parents and even stopping and having a post game dinner at the restaurant in the rink. I got to meet Kelli Stack who was just standing in the lobby talking to her family, Brianna Decker stopped outside the restaurant to sign autographs.

It was nothing short of incredible.

The Women's World Championships are coming to Plymouth in March and cannot wait to have more red, white and blue right here in the Mitten once again.

As the ads say, the world is coming to Plymouth, are you ready?

My answer is yes.