Hatter taking hockey, acting skills to TV screen

By Chris Brown on August 3, 2018.

Call it a case of art imitating life.

Medicine Hat’s Kinlee Fahselt spends a lot of her winter tending the twine for the bantam AAA Lethbridge Cyclones. This week she’s in Calgary doing it for the camera, shooting the pilot for a potential television series. Last month Fahselt nabbed the role of Morgan in “Puck,” which the creators describe as a hard-hitting realistic series.

“We want to bring everyone into the action, drama, spitting, swearing, crying, laughing, hacking and everything in between that makes up the stories surrounding Canadian elite youth hockey,” reads the overview on the project’s Indiegogo crowdfunding page.

As Morgan, Fahselt portrays the first female goalie to play on the boys’ hockey team. Fahselt said she was surprised to learn she’d won the part a few days after going to auditions in mid-July in Calgary.

I didn’t think I was going to be selected but it was a good feeling. I was super happy, really excited,” she said of getting the news.

Fahselt thinks her experience both on the ice and on stage were a big factor in her selection.

“They were looking for actors who are also hockey players so it would be more authentic,” said the 14-year-old. She’s performed in musicals with Eagle Butte High School and Medicine Hat Musical Theatre.

There’s a lot of preparation for both, but it couldn’t be more different. Fahselt said acting requires a lot of memorization and trying to become the character and make it all look natural. With hockey it’s mostly about the mental preparation and it’s more physically demanding.

Writer-director Matt Carson has 20-plus years of experience as a hockey player and coach.