28 | JANUARY 20 • 2022 

E

lle Hartje was making a name 
for herself in women’s hockey at 
the dawn of the new year.
The 20-year-old Yale University 
sophomore from Bloomfield Hills 
was averaging 1.29 assists per game, 
the highest average among NCAA 
Division I women’s hockey players.
Hartje had six goals and 18 assists 
in 14 games for the Bulldogs (10-3-1), 
who were ranked No. 6 in the country, 
the highest ranking in program 
history.

Hartje’s emergence is no accident.
A decision that took her far out of 
her comfort zone and to the other 
side of the world during a pandemic is 
paying huge dividends.
Hartje lived during 
the 2020-21 hockey 
season in Bratislava, 
Slovakia, where Jan and 
Eva Rival, her maternal 
grandparents, were born, 
lived as adults and got 
married.

Anita Rival, Hartje’s aunt, also lived 
in Bratislava until she was 4, moving 
with her parents to the U.S. in 1968.
Family ties were important, but 
hockey was Hartje’s focus while she 
was in Slovakia.
She played for a 
club team — HC SKP 
Bratislava — that 
earned a bronze medal 
in the Elite Women’s 
Hockey League, 
which has teams 

Hockey star Elle Hartje explores family roots, grows personally 
during a pandemic-plagued season in Slovakia.

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

sports HIGHlights

brought to you in partnership with 
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Ice Sculpture

ABOVE: Elle Hartje scores 
the first of her two goals in 
her Slovakian club team’s 
4-3 overtime loss to the 
Vienna Sabres in the Elite 
Women’s Hockey League’s 
2021 playoff semifinals in 
Budapest, Hungary.

MAGYAR JEGKRONG

